by Ryan Rogers
LSUsports.net
BATON ROUGE — On a night filled with emotions, Collis Temple III grabbed an offensive rebound and scored a tough basket inside with 6.4 seconds left in the game to give LSU a 78-77 overtime victory over No. 12 Ole Miss on Senior Night in the Maravich Assembly Center.
LSU improved to 14-12 overall and 2-13 in Southeastern Conference play, while Ole Miss fell to 22-6 overall and 10-5 in the SEC.
After losing many heartbreakers this season, LSU finally exorcised its demons and won a thriller on a special night. It was Senior Night at LSU and seniors Brian Beshara, Jack Warner and Lamont Roland walked off the PMAC floor as Tigers for the last time.
Beshara, a 6-9 forward from Dallas, gave a gutsy performance in his last home game as a Tiger. He scored 16 points including two clutch three pointers late in regulation.
Ronald Dupree hit a free throw with 1.1 seconds left in regulation to force overtime. He could have ended the game but his second free throw attempt failed. The teams took the affair to overtime even at 67-67 at the end of regulation.
In overtime, Ole Miss nailed two three pointers and Justin Reed slammed a fast break dunk, as it appeared the Rebels would take the air out of LSU’s sails. Ole Miss led 77-69 with 2:45 remaining in overtime.
However, LSU refused to give up. Temple drained a three pointer and LSU cut the lead to 77-74 with 1:30 left in overtime. Dupree hit a jumper and LSU cut the lead to 77-76 with 51 seconds left. After Temple’s heroics, Ole Miss’ Jason Harrison missed a jumper in the lane as time expired in the extra period.
Despite the loss, Ole Miss clinched at least a share of the SEC Western Division title.
Leading scorers for LSU were Dupree with 22 points and six rebounds. Temple had 16 points and Jason Wilson added 10 points and seven rebounds.
Despite only playing 21 minutes, Rahim Lockhart led the Rebels with 18 points. Reed added 17 and Holmes followed with 13 points for Ole Miss.
LSU completes the regular season on Saturday morning at 11 a.m. CST against Tennessee in Knoxville.