TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — LSU senior forward Ronald Dupree became just the fourth LSU basketball player to crack the top 10 in both career scoring and rebounding in school history Saturday as he recorded his second 20-plus point scoring effort in Alabama’s 75-66 win over LSU at the Coleman Coliseum.
The 22-point, nine rebound effort wasn’t enough to overcome the Crimson Tide, who finally was able to mount an offensive charge of their own as point guard Maurice Williamson had 27 points to lead Alabama, now 13-5 and 3-4 in the SEC. Kenny Walker added 16 points and Erwin Dudley put in 14. Walker doubled up with 10 rebounds.
The Tigers, averaging just 22 percent from the three-point line in the last four losses, hit six treys in the game, but just 27 percent for the contest (6-of-22). Five of those came after a 1-for-8 first half. The Tigers lost for a fifth straight time, falling to 12-7 and 1-6 entering the final nine games of the regular season. LSU needs three wins to assure a second consecutive winning record.
Brad Bridgewater had a strong performance replacing Jaime Lloreda, who was suspended on Friday by the Southeastern Conference office after committing a flagrant foul in the Tuesday game versus Florida. Bridgewater, in his fifth start of the season, had 12 points on 6-of-11 shooting with six rebounds, one assist and a block in 32 minutes. Torris Bright had 11 points and Darrel Mitchell added 10 and had seven assists.
Dupree entered the game needing 14 points to move from 13th on LSU’s all-time scoring list to past Vernel Singleton in 10th position. That came at the 16:35 mark of the second half on a trademark Dupree dunk. He joins Durand “Rudy” Macklin, Shaquille O’Neal and Bob Pettit as the only LSU players to be in the top 10 in the school’s list of career scorers and rebounders.
The Tigers got off to a fast 5-0 start as Collis Temple put together a quick bucket and free throw and Bridgewater scored on a made fast break lay up. But Alabama’s offense quickly found a gear, coming back to take the lead for good, 8-7 on a Dudley bucket at the 16:38 mark. Lucky Williams bucket advanced the lead to double figures for the first time at 23-13, at the 7:39 mark of the half and the Tide had two leads of 12 before the first half intermission.
LSU made a run before that break, outscoring the Tide, 10-4 over the last four minutes to trail by just six, 34-28, after 20 minutes of play.
The Tigers got it to five, 35-30, at the 19:13 mark of the second half, but Alabama sprinted away for a 48-34 margin on another Mo Williams trey at the 13:48 mark. The lead went to as much as 18 with 10:58 to play, 54-36, before LSU hit four consecutive three-pointers, one by Mitchell and three by Torris Bright to cut the game to a workable 57-48 Alabama lead with 8:16 to play.
But the game stayed in that area the rest of the way with LSU only able to cut it to seven in the final 41 seconds on Dupree’s final points of the night.
“I was proud of our team the last 10 or 12 minutes,” said LSU Coach John Brady. “I thought the inability of our ones and twos to not stay between their man and the goal and allow dribble penetration and easy baskets was the difference in the game. We don’t guard the other team’s ones and twos very well.”
“I really likes how they (Alabama) came out and responded,” said Alabama Head Coach Mark Gottfried. “I thought they came out and played really hard. What you’ve got with our group of guys and I think that the people that know our team know that this is a great group of people, very coachable.”
For the game, the Tide made 26-of-64 shots for 40.6 percent, while LSU was 25-of-60 (41.7 percent). The Tide tried 22 treys, making just four to LSU’s six, but made 19-of-26 free throws, compared to 10-of-14 for LSU (71.4 percent). Alabama out rebounded LSU, 41-39, and the Tigers had 17 assists and 15 turnovers. Alabama had 14 assists and just seven turnovers.
“I thought we rebounded the ball okay,” said Brady. “We didn’t quite get to the foul line as much as I would like. We didn’t make a few timely shots, but we had some decent looks. I thought our offense was fine. We had 10 turnovers in the first half, but those were all our fault. They didn’t do anything to make us turn the ball over. In the second half we settled down offensively, and I thought we ran pretty good offense.”
LSU returns home for a game on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. as the Tigers host South Carolina at the Maravich Assembly Center in a game to be regionally televised by JP Sports. Tickets for the game are on sale at the LSU Athletic Ticket Office and on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net.