BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s basketball team shot 62.7 percent from the field including 18 of 26 shooting the second half, as the Tigers knocked off No. 7-ranked Mississippi State, 85-72, on Saturday evening in the Maravich Assembly Center.
The Tigers (11-2, 1-1 SEC) beat their second Top 10 team for the first time in one season since defeating No. 5 Arizona (86-60 on Jan. 29) and No. 9 Auburn (83-68 on Feb. 9) in 2000. Earlier this season, LSU defeated No. 1 Arizona in the PMAC, 66-65.
Mississippi State (10-3, 0-2 SEC) lost for the second time in a row since moving into the nation’s Top 10 last on Jan. 6. The Bulldogs lost to Florida, 74-66, at home on Jan. 7.
Jaime Lloreda, who recovered from a bone bruise that caused him to miss Wednesday’s Houston contest, led four Tigers in double figures, scoring 19 points and pulling down nine rebounds as the Tigers outrebounded (31-24) and outhustled the Bulldogs throughout the evening. Senior forward Ronald Dupree added 18 points and 12 rebounds, while Torris Bright also had a double double with 17 points and 10 assists.
Freshman guard Darrel Mitchell was the fourth Tiger in double figures scoring with 12 points on 3-of-4 shooting and four free throws. Collis Temple III, who struggled with foul trouble, scored seven points in 20 minutes of play. Backup forward Brad Bridgewater scored six points on 3-of-3 shooting, giving the Tigers 15 key minutes.
The Bulldogs were led by Timmy Bowers and Mario Austin who each scored 17 points. Austin, who was hampered by a sore knee, did not start by played 27 minutes. Michal Ignerski added 14 points for Mississippi State. The Bulldogs made 10 of 24 three-pointers for 41.7 percent to keep the Tigers at bay for the majority of the game. LSU made 6-of-12 shots from behind the arc, three in each half.
With Austin on the bench nursing a knee injury suffered in a 74-66 loss to Florida on Jan. 7, reserve 7-0 center Marcus Campbell started and caused havoc for Lloreda early on. Campbell made his first two shots from the field, blocked one shot and earned another on a steal off a held ball in the first four minutes of the game. State led 9-6 at the first media timeout with 15:49 to play.
However, MSU head coach Rick Stansbury brought Austin off the bench after the timeout and the Tigers went after the All-America candidate on both ends of the court. Lloreda earned back-to-back layups to start a 9-2 run with Austin on the floor before Dupree put back a Lloreda miss for a third-chance bucket around Austin.
With a 15-13 lead, Lloreda exited at the 11:52 media timeout and reserve forward Brad Bridgewater took his spot in the middle of the court. Also, LSU head coach John Brady replaced Bright and Temple with Charlie Thompson and Darrel Mitchell.
Consecutive steals by Mitchell and Hudson led to baskets by Dupree and Bridgewater and a seven-point lead, 20-13. Another steal by Thompson put Dupree on the free throw line for a pair shots and a 22-13 advantage with 9:07 to play.
The Tigers continued to frustrate Austin in the lane until he was replaced by Campbell at the 6:41 mark after a layup by Lloreda put the Tigers up 10. After a Hudson free throw increased the lead to 11, Lloreda was called for a technical foul after he and MSU forward Michal Ignerski got tangled up on the one-and-one attempt. Lloreda appeared to be getting held by the shirt under the basket, however, the official reacted to Lloreda’s arm swing with the “T.”
Ignerski made both free throws and a layup after the missed free throw to cut the Tigers’ lead to seven, 25-18. Lloreda responded with five straight points on three consecutive possessions to push the lead back to 10 with 3:57 to play in the half.
After the media timeout, Bright stole a pass in the front court and beat reserve guard Stephen Cowherd one-on-one for a layup and the largest advantage of the half, 32-20.
Bowers’ consecutive treys brought MSU within eight, and a driving layup by Winsome Frazier cut the lead to 34-28 with 1:25 on the clock.
Bowers ended the half with his third trey to cut the lead to 39-33 with 3.7 seconds left.
The Lloreda-Austin contest took center stage to start the second half. After Lloreda was called for his third personal foul on the offensive end, both coaches went to the paint for offense. Lloreda scored six straight points before leaving the floor, while Austin made two of three shots and a pair of free throws to keep MSU within eight, 50-42, after a Bright three-pointer.
The Tigers made 7-of-8 shots in the first 4:16 of the second half to take a 54-45 lead.
MSU responded with a 7-0 run on a layup by Derrick Zimmerman, a three-pointer by Ontario Harper and a tip-in by Campbell to reduce the lead to 54-52 with 12:06 to play. Brady called a 30-second timeout to stop the bleeding.
The Tigers again responded with an 8-3 run out of the timeout to re-establish a seven-point lead, 62-55, with 9:20 to play. The lead grew to nine, 68-59, on a free throw by Dupree after a three-pointer by Mitchell that ignited the crowd with 6:33 to play.
Thompson, a 6-1 junior from Lake Charles, La., who averages only seven minutes and 0.1 points per game in 12 games this season, brought the PMAC crowd to its feet once again with a one-on-three driving layup to give the Tigers a 13-point lead with little more than four minutes to play.
With time running down on the shot clock, the former walk-on guard used screen at the left side of the arc to get a lane to the goal and then beat three Bulldogs to the rim for first points since the second game of the season on Nov. 24.
After a pair of Austin free throws, the Tigers scored six straight points including two breakaway dunks by Dupree and the 5-11 Mitchell to put the game away with 2:05 to play, 81-64.
Attn: Pd. 11,653; Act. 10,442