HILO, Hawai’i — Weber State’s top player was out of the game five minutes deep with a sprained left ankle and wouldn’t return. LSU had a 19-6 lead over the Wildcats in the first round of the Big Island Invitational and appeared to be in total control some eight minutes deep.
But in the end it was a turnaround jumper eight feet from the goal as the overtime horn sounded by Stephan Bachmann that was the difference as the LSU defense failed to defend the play in a 75-74 overtime decision for Weber State over LSU.
The loss sends the Tigers into a consolation semifinal against the loser of Wisconsin and Hawai’i-Hilo Saturday night at 6:30 p.m. CST. The game will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Network (Eagle 98.1 FM) and on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net.
LSU appeared to have the game won when down one, following an LSU timeout with 17 seconds, Ronald Dupree was able to drive down the baseline and score with five seconds to play to give the Tigers a 74-73 lead. Weber in bounded and called time out in the back court with two seconds to play.
On the inbounds, Brad Barton threw a perfect 50-foot strike to Bachmann who turned on Bridgewater and drained it for the win as the buzzer sounded. As the horn sounded, it was obvious from John Brady‘s reaction that the Tigers had blown the defensive coverage.
“This team is not good enough to rely on themselves, they have to relay on each other. The only way to rely on one another is to rely on one another is to play collectively as a team and listen to the instructions that your are given. At the end of the game, Ronald Dupree is supposed to front (Bachmann), Bridgewater is supposed to play behind him. Ronald Dupree is playing in the middle of the floor. It’s amazing from the timeout to the floor, we just went brain dead. If they don’t listen and do exactly as they are told to the best of their ability, we are not going to beat teams of quality or win close games and that’s exactly what happened (today),” said LSU Coach John Brady.
The Tigers had to rally from behind to get the game to overtime after Weber State clawed back from the early deficit. It was Chris Woods who picked up the spark for Weber State in regulation as leading scorer and All-Big Sky player Jermaine Boyette was unable to continue after spraining his ankle five minutes in. Woods bucket gave Weber a 60-58 lead with 1:43 left, but he was unable to capitalize on the three-point play, giving Torris Bright a chance to tie it at 60 on a lay in with 1:28 in regulation. Woods answered right back with a reverse lay up and Antonio Hudson would tie the game at 62-62 with a coast-to-coast slam off a steal.
The Wildcats went back to Woods for the win with seven seconds left as he battled between Brad Bridgewater and Dupree. Dupree was called for the foul, but Woods, who finished 2-of-8 at the line, missed both free throws badly and the game was headed for overtime.
Woods would foul out early in the overtime taking his game-high 20 points to the bench, giving LSU what appeared to be an advantage. But the teams traded buckets before John Hamilton hit a trey to put Weber up 69-68 with three minutes to go.
That’s when Bachmann went to work on the baseline, getting the Wildcats up 73-70 with 1:15 to go. Collis Temple hit two free throws to make it 73-72 with 57 seconds left. Bachman missed setting up the final sequence.
Besides’ Woods 20, Nic Sparrow had 13 points, Patrick Danley 12, and John Hamilton 11. For the Tigers Dupree had 20 points, Torris Bright had 16, Collis Temple 15 and Antonio Hudson off the bench 12 in a game the Tigers battled foul trouble all night long.
“It’s because we don’t defend well,” said Brady. “You foul carelessly and needlessly because you don’t defend well. This team has not bought into it or believed in it. We don’t have a real deep enough commitment to do the things that are necessary. We are not doing enough to stop people like we need to.”
Early on it was all Tigers as LSU took advantage of several Weber State turnovers with Dupree hitting LSU’s first six points on a three-pointer, a free throw and a running slam dunk. Bright got LSU out to an 8-2 lead at the 15:56 mark as he stole the ball from Boyette for an easy lay up. On the play, Boyette came up limping on his left leg and he had to go to the bench.
Just like LSU’s last appearance in the 1999 Hawaii Pacific Tournament, the Tigers had early success from the three-point line with LSU hitting four in the first 6:30 of the contest. That brought Weber State out of a zone into the man-to-man and LSU ran the 35-second shot clock down three times, forcing two shots and getting a Dupree bucket as LSU ran the lead out to 13 points, 19-6, with 12 minutes to go in the half.
But the LSU offense began to go stagnant with the change of defense with the Tigers forcing shots after long possessions of little offensive movement. Weber State, in the two-shot double bonus with 13 minutes left in the first half, spent most of the half making up ground at the free throw line. Boyette didn’t return and other players like Woods stepped up with a double-digit first half as the Wildcats of the Big Sky Conference closed LSU’s lead to three at 23-20 and 25-22 with 3:58 remaining in the opening 20 minutes.
Bachman made one free throw with 3:14 to go to get Weber with tow, and a turnover gave WSU a chance to tie or take the lead. Woods missed and Hudson followed his own lay up miss with a bucket to back up 27-23, with 2:22 left. Marlon Carter would beat LSU down court to make it 27-25 with 1:50 left before Torris Bright hit a trey to make it 30-25 entering the final 90 seconds of the first half.
The half looked like it would close nicely for LSU as coming out of a called timeout the Tigers found Hudson down low for an eight footer and a 32-25 lead. But as the half ran out, LSU allowed Brad Barton to take an uncontested running jumper some 10 feet behind the half court line and the ball bounced off the glass and in to cut LSU’s halftime margin to four, 32-28.
In the second half, the Tigers tried to break away from the Wildcats, but three-pointers by Barton and John Hamilton kept it a four-point game through the first five minutes of the final 20.
The Wildcats got it back to two for the first time at 40-38 and again at 42-40 and 44-42 at the 11:39 mark. The Tigers turned it over and Sparrow’s jumper tied the game at 44-44 with 11:20 to play. LSU followed the possession with an air ball jumper by Dupree and Sparrow took a corner trey to give Weber State seven straight points and a 47-44 lead as the game headed to the final 10 minutes.
Weber State moved the lead to five after Torris Bright slipped on defense allowing Stevie Morrison to hit a trey to make it 51-46 with 7 minutes to play. But LSU began to get its offense rolling and a Temple free throw, a Bright 18-footer and a Temple trey gave the Tigers back the lead at 52-51 with 6:20 to play.
Weber State came out of a timeout, posted Woods on the block and he drew a foul on a bucket to take the lead. But off the free throw miss, LSU’s Jermaine Williams went coast-to-coast to go back up 54-53 as the clock moved toward the final five minutes.