BATON ROUGE — Seniors Ronald Dupree, Torris Bright and Collis Temple combined to score 40 points as the Tigers held off Alabama for a 66-62 Southeastern Conference victory before a season high crowd of 11,322 here Saturday at the Maravich Assembly Center.
With the win, the Tigers clinch the No. 3 seed for the SEC Western Division at next week’s SEC Tournament in New Orleans. LSU will face Vanderbilt, the No. 6 seed from the Eastern Division, in the first round at 2:15 p.m. CST at the Louisiana Superdome.
The victory also all but assured the Tigers of an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers, winners of five straight and seven of their last nine, improved to 19-9 overall and 8-8 in league play.
Head coach John Brady (100-79) won his 100th game in his sixth season at LSU in front of 12,822 at the PMAC.
Alabama finished its regular season with a 17-10 overall mark and a 7-9 conference record.
“I am proud of our team because we got down by four late and found a way to come back and win” LSU coach John Brady said. “We executed down the stretch and defended extremely well. Our plan was to double-team Erwin Dudley and take him out of the game. We did exactly that.
“It was a great win for our team and our the program and the 12,000 fans that were in here. I am glad we were able to let them have a good time.”
Dupree led all scorers with 14 points to go along with 12 rebounds, while Bright added 13 points and six assists, Temple 13 points, and junior forward Jaime Lloreda had 11 points, 13 rebounds and seven blocked shots. Freshman Darrell Mitchell came off the bench to hit three 3-pointers and he finished with 11 points.
Maurice Williamson led Alabama with 19 points, while Kennedy Winston added 14 points and Earnest Shelton 13. Erwin Dudley, who entered the game averaging 15 points and nine rebounds a contest, was held to only seven points, with five of those coming in the final 20 seconds of the contest.
“I thought Jaime Lloreda was the difference in the game,” Alabama coach Mark Gottfried said. “He played great on both ends. Defensively, he did as well guarding Erwin (Dudley) as anybody all year. He had some great blocks and did a great job.”
LSU scored the first five points of the contest and led by as many as eight points, 25-17, on a jumper by Dupree at the 5:40 mark. The Crimson Tide closed the half with a 12-4 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Shelton at the buzzer to tie the game at 29-29 at halftime.
LSU opened up a seven-point lead in the first two minutes of the second half as Temple hit a 3-pointer on the Tigers’ first possession followed by baskets by Xavier Whipple and Dupree for a 36-29 advantage at the 18:13. Alabama slowly chipped away at the Tiger lead, pulling to within one, 43-42, on a 3-pointer by Williams at the 12:07 mark.
LSU, on another 3-pointer by Temple and a layup by Dupree, stretched the margin to 48-44 with 10:26 remaining. The Crimson Tide answered again, the time scoring eight straight points to take their biggest lead of the contest, 52-48, on a layup by Shelton with 8:13 to go.
Baskets by Antonio Hudson and Dupree tied the score at 52-52 and then a 3-pointer by Mitchell gave the Tigers the lead for good at 55-52 with 4:31 left. LSU took its biggest lead of the game, 64-54 on a dunk by Dupree with 38 seconds left. Alabama never threatened in the final minute as the Tigers led 66-59 with six seconds left when Dudley connected on a 3-pointer for the final margin.