BATON ROUGE — In front of a frenzied crowd rivaled only by a Saturday night in Tiger Stadium, the LSU men’s basketball team pulled out to a 15-point second-half lead before holding on for one of the biggest upsets in school history, 66-65, over No. 1 Arizona in the Maravich Assembly Center.
Trailing by one in the final 12 seconds, Arizona’s 5-10 All-America guard Jason Gardner came off a pick and earned a speed mismatch against LSU’s 6-9 forward Jaime Lloreda on the right side of the key. However, Lloreda stopped Gardner’s momentum toward the goal and received help-side protection that forced the ball out of bounds with only 0.5 seconds remaining. Gardner’s alley-oop attempt to 6-4 senior guard Hassan Adams was tipped into the air by LSU’s Torris Bright, starting the clock and ending the game.
The Tigers (7-1) beat an AP No. 1 team for the first time since Feb. 11, 1978, when the Tigers beat Kentucky, 95-94, in overtime here in Baton Rouge. Arizona lost for the first time this season, falling to 5-1. LSU also extended its regular-season non-conference home winning streak to 43 games, as the home team in the LSU-Arizona has never lost. The series is now tied at 3-3.
Tigers’ guard Antonio Hudson made 7-of-14 shots including three three-pointers to score a game-high 20 points and grab nine rebounds. Forward Jaime Lloreda also keyed the LSU effort with 19 points and 13 rebounds in 35 minutes on the court. Ronald Dupree added 12 points and nine rebounds in a game-high 36 minutes of action.
LSU finished the game 23 of 52 from the field (44.2 percent) despite struggling to only a 10 of 28 clip in the second half. The Tigers also made 17 of 25 free throws (68 percent) including several in the clutch. LSU outrebounded Arizona, 44-41.
Arizona, playing without injured star Luke Walton, shot only 34.4 percent from the field (11 of 32) in the first half and missed their first 13 shots of the second half to finish the game at 32.9 percent (23 of 70). The Wildcats, who entered the game hitting 47.8 percent from the field and 37.6 percent from three-point range, only made 4-of-22 treys (18.2 percent) on the evening and 9-of-30 shots in the second half.
The Wildcats were led by Gardner who scored 16 points of 5-of-14 shooting, while forward Rick Anderson, Adams and Channing Frye had 11 points each. Arizona was held to a season-low point total, eight points less than its 73-point effort against then-No. 8 Texas.
The Tigers scored the first four points of the contest on a free throw by Lloreda and a three-pointer by Hudson. However, Arizona’s Gardner answered with back-to-back threes of his own to give the Wildcats their first lead, 6-4, only 2:01 into the game.
Both team struggled to get the ball to fall in the basket in the first eight minutes, as Arizona made just 4-of-11 shots while the Tigers converted just 3-of-10 attempts from the field and trailed 11-9. Six LSU turnovers and four by the Wildcats also kept each team at bay early on.
A seventh Tigers turnover led to a four-point trip for Wildcats’ guard Will Bynum, as the sophomore was fouled on a fastbreak layup before rebounding his missed free throw and hitting another layup for a 15-9 lead with 10:20 to play in the half.
After going more than three minutes without scoring, Dupree took an inbound pass from Mitchell at halfcourt and passed to Lloreda for a dunk on the two-on-one fastbreak to stay within four, 15-11.
Another basket off a fastbreak — a pull-up seven-footer by Mitchell and a driving layup by Lloreda tied the game at 17-17 with less than five minutes to play in the half. After a jumper by Anderson landed true, Hudson tied the game once at 19-19 less than a minute later with another hard penetration into the much-taller Wildcats’ defense.
The Tigers took their first lead since the opening three minute with 3:37 on the clock when Dupree came down with an offensive rebound and laid it in for a 23-22 advantage. A leaping reverse layup by Mitchell around the All-America Gardner upped the advantage to three and a layup by Lloreda against an overly aggressive Arizona defense gave LSU a 27-22 lead.
LSU would lead by as many as eight, 32-24, with less than a minute to play in the half, and led 32-26 at the break.
As Arizona missed its first four shots from the field and turned the ball over once, LSU scored the first six points of the second half to take a 38-26 lead only three minutes into the period.
With 15:14 to play, Lloreda banked in a pair of free throws for his 13th point of the evening, giving LSU a 42-28 lead while the Wildcats had still yet to make a field goal in seven second-half attempts.
After two scoreless minutes — and as Arizona’s streak of missed field goals reached 12 to start the half — Gardner hit a free throw with 13:13 on the clock.
The streak ended on Arizona’s 14th shot of the half, a layup by Adams with 11:58 left in the half that cut the LSU lead to 42-32. However, a fourth-chance layup by Lloreda put the Tigers back up by 12, 44-32, with 11:13 to play.
Arizona moved into a full-court press, trying to force the Tigers into an up-tempo affair. Instead, LSU broke the press and worked its half-court offense to perfection to set up a Hudson three-pointer. LSU led 49-34 after a pair of Lloreda free throws with 9:20 to play.
LSU reserve guard Tony Gipson was cornered into the Tigers’ front court and was forced to call the team’s final timeout of the game with 8:55 to play.
As Arizona began its late run, the Tigers were unable to stop the bleeding until Bright made a pair of free throws with 4:20 to play to lead 55-50. From there, Gardner made one of two at the stripe and Lloreda converted a three-point play to keep a seven-point advantage, 58-51.
A pair of free throws by Bright that gave LSU an eight-point lead were answered by Arizona’s three-point play by Adams. Another pair of free throws by Frye again cut the lead to three, 61-58, with 2:15 to play.
LSU was able to extend the lead to six before Fox was sent to the line for a pair of free throws. After making the first one and missing the second, Dupree was falling out of bounds with the ball in hand. He called timeout, but was assessed an indirect technical foul as the Tigers had none. Stoudamire then made a pair of free throws to bring Arizona within two, 66-63.
Mitchell’s inbound pass was thrown astray, giving Iguodala a chance to bring the Wildcats within one, 66-65 with a jumper just outside the lane.
With 35.9 seconds remaining and the ball in hand, LSU worked the clock to 18 seconds before Dupree was stripped of the ball by Frye. Arizona called timeout with 12 seconds remaining, but was unable to score as Gardner was stripped of the ball with less than a second remaining. Although Arizona maintained possession with 0.5 seconds remaining, Bright tipped Gardner’s inbound pass into the air to start the clock and seal the win.
LSU returns to action after the Christmas break against Tulane in the New Orleans Arena on Dec. 28 at 2:30 p.m.