BATON ROUGE — Cold shooting from every area of the court — including the free throw line — sealed the LSU men’s basketball team’s fourth-straight SEC loss against the nearly-as-cold seventh-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide, 57-48, on Saturday evening in the Maravich Assembly Center.
The Tigers (12-9 overall, 2-6 SEC) made only 18-of-53 shots from the field and 9-of-20 from the free throw line, and never threatened the Tide until there were less than two minutes to play. Alabama (19-3, 7-1 SEC) didn’t do much to overwhlem the Tigers offensively in the victory, shooting only 36.0 percent from the field (18 of 50) including 11.8 percent from three-point range (2 of 17).
Ronald Dupree had his sixth double-double of the season — 19 points and 14 rebounds — and his third in league play to pace the struggling Tigers. Collis Temple III added 12, while Brad Bridgewater and Torris Bright scored six each. LSU has averaged only 55 points per game during its four-game losing streak.
The Crimson Tide was led by post players Kenny Walker and Erwin Dudley who scored 13 and 12, respectively. First-Team All-SEC performer Rod Grizzard was held to nine point on 4-of-11 shooting. Dudley led the game with 16 rebounds as LSU was out-rebounded 47-29.
Eight minutes into the ballgame, the teams combined to make only 8-of-24 (33.3 percent) shots from the field and the game was tied at 10-10.
LSU trailed by two, 12-10, when Brady went to his bench in search of an offensive answer. With three starters on the bench and two newcomers on the court along with sophomore Charlie Thompson, Brady’s Tigers were still lost offensively and went without a field goal over a seven-minute stretch.
Meanwhile, Alabama continued to be unimpressive on the offensive end but managed to make a pair of second-chance layups and a three pointer to extend the lead to 11, 21-10.
Bridgewater rolled off four-straight points in the post before Alabama took a timeout at the 3:31 mark of the first half. Coming out of the media timeout at 3:14, the team were shooting 14-of-45 (31.1 percent) before Kenny Walker hit a wide open jumper from seven feet to extend the lead to nine, 23-14.
Dupree and Alabama’s Terrance Meade traded field goals before Bright connected on a long three pointers from the left wing to cut the lead to 25-19 with 1:12 remaining.
However, Grizzard hit a 17-foot jumper and Alabama benefitted from a good bounce off a long three pointer to score an easy second-chance basket at the buzzer and lead 29-19 at the half.
To open the second half, the teams again struggled to get off good shots and each shot poorly — combined 2 of 11 in the first 4:40.
LSU cut the lead to seven, 37-30, when Dupree drove the lane and hit a layup under duress with 10:50 remaining in the game. However, he missed the opportunity for the three-point play and Alabama responded with a basket on the other end to up the lead to nine again.
Dupree then got the Tigers to within six, 39-33, with a second-chance layup, however, the Tide was at the right place at the right time once again for a second-chance basket of its own with 8:31 remaining.
A 6-0 run that included a long jumper by Grizzard and an easy layup by Maurice Williams put LSU behind 14, 48-34, with under four minutes to play.
LSU made a run at the Tide late, as Dupree hit a fourth-chance basket off a missed Temple three pointer to cut the lead to 51-46 with 1:18 to play.
However, Alabama made 6-of-6 free throws down the stretch, all by Antoine Pettaway, to win.