BATON ROUGE — Ronald Dupree dribbled the ball out of bounds with 3.9 seconds remaining in the game, as the Tigers fell to No. 18 Georgia, 55-54, in a back-and-forth game on Saturday afternoon in the Maravich Assembly Center.
LSU (14-13, 4-10 SEC) had several leads down the stretch, but Georgia (20-7, 9-5 SEC) overcame each time to defeat the Tigers in a game that was tied 14 times.
Antonio Hudson led four Tigers in double figures with 13 points, while Ronald Dupree added 12 and Torris Bright and Brad Bridgewater had 10 each.
Georgia was led by Jarvis Hayes who had 14. Ezra Williams added 13 and Chris Daniels had 10. The Bulldogs shot 41.4 percent from the field, while LSU was 19 of 49 for 38.8 percent. Neither team shot well from behind the arc, as Georgia was only 3 of 19 and LSU was only 3 of 15.
Georgia opened a six-point lead before Bright hit his first trey of the game and Bridgewater scored under the basket to cut the advantage to one, 8-7, with 14:50 to play in the first half. However, Bright’s pull-up three-pointer on a 2-on-2 fast break landed off the mark and gave Georgia an easy field goal on the other end. LSU tied the game at 10-10 with a free throw by Jermaine Williams and took its first lead on a pair by Hudson with 13:25 left on the clock.
Tied at 16-16, the Tigers and Bulldogs continued to battle for the lead as each cooled below 40 percent from the field over the next five minutes, as no play had more than four points and the teams combined to make only 1-of-13 from three-point range.
Bridgewater’s spinning layup with 3:50 to play tied the game once again at 22-22, before Dupree got away with a travel to make a 12-foot jumper from the right baseline to take the lead.
Williams made Georgia’s first three-pointer in nine attempts for a 25-24 lead, but Bright hit consecutive free throws to turn the tides in LSU’s favor. A blocked shot by Bridgewater led to a dunk by the 6-9 forward on the other end for a three-point lead. Williams answered with another trey for the Bulldogs to tie the game at 28-28 going into halftime.
The Tigers and Bulldogs were tied nine times in the first half.
With 16:33 to play in the game, Bridgewater continued to lead the Tigers’ offense, as he took the ball down the right baseline for an acrobatic dunk and a 32-31 lead.
Georgia came back with six straight to force LSU head coach John Brady to take a timeout trailing 37-32 with 13:42 to play. The run was broken by a free throw by Hudson and a basket by Jason Wilson, cutting to lead to two, 37-35, at the 11:57 media timeout.
Hudson made LSU’s second three-pointer in 16 attempts to trail 39-38, and Bright’s pair of free throws after a steal gave them a 40-39 lead with under nine minutes to play. Hudson hit his second in a row at the 7:13 mark to take a 43-41 lead.
A three-point play by Dupree was set up by Hudson’s dribble penetration with less than four seconds on the shot clock, however, Georgia matched with a three-point play of its own to tie the game at 46-46.
Williams’ pair of free throws with 3:41 to play gave the Tigers the lead, 50-48, at the final media timeout before Dupree hit 1-of-2 for a three-point lead. Georgia’s Williams hit a trey to tie the game at 51-51.
Bright drained a fade-away 18-footer for a 53-51 lead with two minutes to play, and then made 1-of-2 at the line for another three-point advantage with 1:24 to play.
Bridgewater to a shot to the right eye after fouling Thomas, cutting him at the eyebrow and sending him to the bench with 1:17 to play. Georgia made both ensuing free throws and LSU led by one, 54-53, with under a minute to play.
After Dupree missed a basket falling away, Georgia had 31 of the 36.2 seconds remaining in the game to play with. Rashad Wright made an 18-foot shot with 18 seconds to play and LSU turned the ball over with a chance to win to end the game.