BATON ROUGE — LSU came back from 15 points down with a 17-0 second-half run to take the Mississippi State Bulldogs to overtime before beating the Bulldogs in rare fashion, 68-65, on Wednesday at the Maravich Assembly Center.
The Tigers (13-11, 3-8 SEC) broke a six-game losing streak, while Mississippi State fell to 18-7 overall and 5-6 in conference play.
Antonio Hudson led all scorers and four Tigers in double figures with a career-high 23 points on 9-of-17 shooting, while Ronald Dupree added 13 points and eight rebounds. Torris Bright and Jermaine Williams each had 10 points and six rebounds. Perhaps the most overlooked stat will be Jason Wilson’s two points on 1-of-3 shooting, as the reserve forward came in for a fouled-out Brad Bridgewater to tip in a second-chance basket late in overtime and give LSU a lead it would never relinquish.
Mississippi State was led by Mario Austin and Timmy Bowers who each scored 17, while Marckell Patterson had 16 and Derrick Zimmerman scored 10.
LSU shot 46.6 percent from the field (27 of 58) including 7-of-17 from three-point range (41.2 percent). Meanwhile, State shot 42.6 percent (23 of 54) including only 9-of-27 (33.3 percent) in the final 25 minutes.
With seven points from Hudson in the first four minutes, LSU took an early 9-5 advantage. Hudson came up with a second-chance layup against the much taller Bulldog post players before hitting a three-pointer and another driving layup to keep LSU in the lead.
Bright scored LSU’s next four points before Mississippi State tied the game at 13-13 with just more than 12 minutes to play.
Momentum looked to begin to swing the way of the Bulldogs when an apparent three-point opportunity for Bright was ruled an offensive foul, sending LSU head coach John Brady to his knees and giving Bright his second foul at the 11:57 media timeout.
Mississippi State would mount an 8-0 run before the Tigers answered with seven straight of their own to take a 20-16 lead with 8:15 to play. In the first 12 minutes, LSU shot 60 percent from the field (9 of 15), while holding MSU to 7-of-15 shooting for 46.7 percent.
However, MSU answered with a 21-2 run to take a 37-22 lead at halftime, as the Tigers missed nine straight shots and did not score a field goal in the final 8:27 of the half.
LSU opened the second half by cutting the lead to eight, 40-32, with a 10-3 run capped by an alley-oop from Bright to Hudson and a three-pointer by Jermaine Williams — his second of the season.
Williams’ three-point play with 15:43 to play in the game cut the halftime lead in half, 42-35. After Brad Bridgewater picked up his fourth foul on the ensuing possession, MSU went on a 7-2 run to extend the lead back to 12.
A three-pointer by Bright, his first in six attempts, and a Dupree dunk brought LSU within seven again, 52-45, with 8:34 remaining in the game. A steal by Bright led to a flying layup by Hudson, and then Bright hit a running five-footer to cut the lead to three, 52-49, with under eight minutes. Hudson then tied the game with a wide-open three-pointer off Bowers’ first missed trey of the game. Bridgewater’s pull-up 15-footer capped a 17-0 run and gave the Tigers their first lead of the half, 54-52.
Up three, 58-55, with 4:16 remaining, Bright picked up his fourth foul of the game. State regained the lead with four straight points before Charlie Thompson hit only his fifth three-pointer of the season to take a 61-59 advantage with 2:52 to play.
The teams swapped free throws and the Tigers led 62-60 at the final media timeout with 1:53 to play. Bridgewater fouled out as Austin spun to the basket, giving the 6-9 sophomore two free throws which were both missed. After a missed three-pointer by Dupree, Austin was again fouled with 1:09 remaining, when he made both free throws to tie the game at 62-62.
Dupree again missed a 16-footer to give the ball back to State with 27.1 seconds remaining. After the MSU timeout, Bowers missed a contested three-pointer with three seconds to play to send the game to overtime.
The teams went scoreless in the first three possessions and two minutes of the extra period before Hudson scored his 23rd point of the night on a driving four-footer off the glass.
LSU matched a free throw by State with a second-chance tip-in by Jason Wilson to take a 66-63 lead with under a minute to play. After a basket by Patterson cut LSU’s lead to one, the Bulldogs fouled Wilson on purpose away from the ball. A 47-percent shooter, Wilson missed the front end of the 1-and-1 to give State an opportunity at the lead.
Wilson tipped the ball away from Bowers with 11 seconds to play but Williams then had the ball stolen by Zimmerman. As he went out of bounds, Zimmerman attempted to call a timeout and was charged a technical foul because the Bulldogs were out of timeouts. However, Bright missed both free throws and State took the ball out under its own basket.
The in-bounds pass was stolen by Dupree, who made both free throws to take a 68-65 lead with 6.4 seconds to play in overtime.