BATON ROUGE- LSU avenged a loss to Mississippi St. earlier in the season with a 71-66 victory Saturday night in the Maravich Assembly Center. It was the Tigers’ seventh-straight win improving its record to 23-4 and put it into first place in the SEC West at 10-4.
Auburn stands in one-half game back in second at 9-4 and plays Florida Sunday.
The 23rd win moved LSU into a tie for fifth place among LSU’s all-time highest win totals in a season.
“It was a good win,” explained Brady. “Mississippi St. played very hard and shot very well especially from three point range.”
The Bulldogs were hot from the perimeter making 11 of 23 three pointers. Stromile Swift led the way with a double double scoring 18 points and pulling down 11 rebounds. He also added six blocks.
Lamont Roland matched Swifts game high with 18 points, which included two clutch three pointers. Torris Bright continued to excel a point guard as he was clutch all night long. He finished with 13 points, four assist and three steals.
Mississippi States Antonio Jackson tied the game up at 63-63 with a three pointer with 2:57 remaining in the game.
Jermaine Williams hit a jump shot regaining the lead for the Tigers at 65-63.
After Stromile Swift blocked Micheal Gholars shot, Derek Zimmerman got the rebound and put up a shot that was rejected by Jabari Smith.
The Tigers’ Torris Bright pushed the ball up the floor. Smith got open inside and made a tough basket inside giving the Tigers a 67-63 advantage with 1:13 remaining in the game. Then the Bulldogs fell apart.
T.J. Billups fouled Lamont Roland. Mississippi St. head coach Rick Stansbury was hit with a costly technical foul for arguing the call. Roland went to line and made 3 of 4 free throws extending the lead to 70-64 with 20 seconds left. This iced the game for the Tigers and they held on to win.
Early in the game the Tigers got the ball inside with ease. Swift scored the first four points of the game with power slams. The Tigers broke an early lead open at the 12:56 mark with a 7-0 run. Torris Bright sunk a three pointer. Then Swift blocked a Bulldog shot, Roland found Beshara on the run down court and Beshara drove to the goal.
Beshara “flushed the toilet”, in the words of teammate Jermaine Williams, with his power slam. Swift finished the run with a slam and the Tigers took a 22-13.
Mississippi St. went on an 8-0 run and the Tigers lead was cut to three points at 26-23 with 9:01 remaining in the half. The Bulldogs would go into the lockeroom with a one-point lead courtesy of a late scoring run by Gholar and Hamilton.
Hamilton scored a basket and Gholar nailed a three pointer giving the Bulldogs a 38-37 lead at halftime. Tang Hamilton scored 16 points in the first half. He made four three pointers which kept the Bulldogs in the game.
The game went back and forth until the Tigers got some momentum on a spectacular play. Jermaine Williams stole the ball and pass it up the floor to Bright. Bright lobbed a pass up to Ronald Dupree and he slammed the ally-oop. It gave LSU a 50-44 lead at the 13:05 mark, their biggest lead of the half thus for.
The lead was extended to seven when Bright found Swift for an ally-oop in which he skied over all Bulldog defenders for an incredible dunk. The Tigers led 55-48 with 9:40 remaining.
LSU will be in action on the road at Auburn Wednesday night in a battle for the SEC Western Division crown.