ATLANTA — It was a case of misses and makes in the final minutes of the LSU-Mississippi State Southeastern Conference semifinal game Saturday at the Georgia Dome and in the end State had the most makes late in a 57-51 win which advanced the Bulldogs to the championship final on Sunday.
The Tigers, despite another impressive effort, see a four-game winning streak halted, finishing the tournament with a 2-1 record and an overall mark of 18-14. LSU now waits on the announcement of the National Invitation Tournament committee early Sunday evening after the NCAA fills its field of
65.
State advances to the 1 p.m. nationally televised CBS final with a record of 25-7.
The Tigers and Bulldogs battled hard for 40 minutes with each point coming only after battling the stiff defense thrown up by both teams. Down 50-48 with the game nearing the four minute mark, Antonio Hudson missed a lay up attempt, but Jason Wilson was able to get the rebounds and was fouled as he dropped the put back in to tie the game at 50-50 with 3:47 to play. Wilson made the subsequent free throw and the Tigers led 51-50, as the final television time out was whistled.
The Tigers would not score again.
Marckell Patterson would make one of two free throw attempts with 3:27 left to tie the game at 51-51 and over the next 1:24 of the game, LSU would miss four field goal attempts before two free throws by Mario Austin would give State the lead for good at 53-51 with 58 seconds left. Torris Bright was then called for a questionable turnover on the inbounds and Patterson hit a field goal to make it 55-51 with 25 seconds left. State would add two free throws for the final margin.
“The key to Mississippi State is not allowing them to have easy baskets. If we can make them run offense and execute in the half-court, we thought we could beat them. If you take the transition basketball of our turnovers for layups, offensive rebounds that they got (15) for the game, if you could just eliminate some of those. If you chart the plays that they had to score on our set defense, it was very poor. They thrive on their athleticism, making other teams turn it over, and they were better at that today than we were and that was the difference in the game. In spite of all those things, when the score is tied at 51, we had three possessions and get two deadeye shots and don’t make the baskets. I don’t fault our team. It just didn’t go in, when Friday, it kind of went in.”
Antonio Hudson was the only player in double figures for the Tigers with 16 points, hitting 6-of-10 points, including two treys. For the tournament he finished the three games with 63 points, an average of 21 points for the three-games LSU played in the tournament. Torris Bright had nine and Ronald Dupree and Jermaine Williams eight each.
The Bulldogs also had just one player in double figures as Mario Austin scored 17 points, including 9-of-10 at the free throw line.
“We are awfully happy to be playing in the championship game in the best conference in the country,” said Mississippi State head coach Rick Stansbury. “Sometimes you have to find a way to win when you don’t play your best and I think today was an example of that. I have to give LSU a lot of credit. I thought they played awfully well. Those last few minutes we stepped up and made some defensive plays which enabled us to win the game.”
Game times, sites and ticket information on an NIT game will be available on LSUsports.net late Sunday night.