NEW ORLEANS — Looking to put an exclamation point on its first NCAA Tournament bid since 2000, the West’s No. 3-seeded LSU men’s basketball team recorded its largest postseason victory in school history, 85-56, over Arkansas in the first round of the 2003 Southeastern Conference Tournament on Thursday afternoon in the Louisiana Superdome.
The previous postseason margin-of-victory record by an LSU team was 22 points set on March 14, 1981, when the Tigers beat Lamar, 100-78, in Austin, Texas, in the first round of their march to the NCAA Final Four. The largest victory in the SEC Tournament was 19, set on March 12, 1993, in a 89-70 win over Ole Miss in Lexington, Ky.
The Tigers (20-9) dominated Arkansas (9-19) from the tip, as guard Torris Bright hit LSU’s first of a school tournament-record 10 three-pointers only nine seconds into the game. LSU never looked back, shooting 48.1 percent from the field, making 23 free throws and scoring 20 points off 15 Arkansas turnovers. The lead grew to as many as 35 late in the second half.
LSU will face the SEC East’s No. 2-seeded Florida in the quarterfinal round on Friday at 2:15 p.m. CST. The game will be broadcast live by JP Sports (cable channel 7 in Baton Rouge) and streamed live on www.LSUsports.net beginning with the pregame show at approximately 1:45 p.m.
With a 10-of-21 performance from three-point range, LSU tied its school record set March 10, 2000, against Vanderbilt in Atlanta. LSU took 30 in that 71-60 quarterfinal victory.
Arkansas, which ranked last in the league in scoring and field goal percentage during the regular season, shot only 32.4 percent from the field (22 of 68). The 56 points scored tied the lowest by LSU’s SEC opponents this season, as Arkansas also scored 56 in a 19-point loss and Auburn beat the Fighting Tigers by two, 56-54, on Feb. 8.
Collis Temple III led LSU with 18 points on 5-of-10 shooting including three three-pointers. Guard Torris Bright added 17 points and five assists, while Ronald Dupree had a double double, his ninth of the season and 33rd of his career, with 14 points and 10 rebounds in 29 minutes.
Arkansas was led by Freshman All-SEC guard Jonathon Modica with 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting. With 15:34 remaining in the game, Modica had 18 of the Razorbacks’ 26 points. He did not score for the rest of the contest. Kendrick Davis made 3-of-5 three-pointers to finish with 13 points.
LSU opened an 11-2 lead in the first 3:15 of the game, as Bright hit a three-pointer on the opening possession and Temple knocked down two more before Arkansas coach Stan Heath called a 30-second timeout at the 17:08 mark.
The lead continued to expand, as LSU took a 14-7 lead to 36-11 in a run that lasted 8:30. The halftime lead was 45-19, just four points off the Tigers’ 49-19 halftime lead on Feb. 22 in Baton Rouge.
In the past two first halves against the Razorbacks, LSU has a 94-38 advantage.
Capped by a three-point play by Xavier Whipple, the Tigers scored the first seven points of the second half to lead 52-19 at the 17:06 mark. Modica answered with seven in a row including a pair of three-pointers to keep the Hogs within 26, 52-26.
However, LSU made five unanswered free throws to end the run and secure the win with more than 13 minutes to play.
The remainder of the game was not without intrigue, however, as Dupree and Modica became tangled after a blocked shot. With 10:58 left to play, Modica was charged with both a personal foul and then technical foul for throwing a half-heart punch toward Dupree. After an officials’ review, Dupree made 1-of-2 from the line before Bright missed a pair of technical free throws.
Only two seconds later, Arkansas point guard Eric Ferguson was called for a hand-check foul on Bright. Before the free throws, Ferguson was given a technical foul and ejected from the game for a comment toward LSU head coach John Brady. Bright made only 2-of-4 free throws to give LSU a 64-32 lead.
Bright tied the school record for three-pointers in a postseason game with a shot from the right baseline at the 8:11 mark. The Tigers made only 2-of-6 in the second half after going 8-of-15 in the first.
Arkansas got no closer than 27, as the Tigers cleared the bench in the waning minutes.
2003 SEC Tournament
March 13-16, 2003
Louisiana Superdome
New Orleans, La.
First Round
Game 1: (W5) Ole Miss def. (E4) South Carolina, 62-56
Game 2: (W3) LSU vs. (W6) Arkansas, 85-56
Game 3: (E5) Vanderbilt def. (W4) Alabama, 82-69
Game 4: (E3) Tennessee received bye
Quarterfinal Round
Game 5: (W1) Mississippi State vs. (W5) Ole Miss, Noon (JP Sports)
Game 6: (E2) Florida vs. (W3) LSU, 2:15 p.m. (JP Sports)
Game 7: (E1) Kentucky vs. (E5) Vanderbilt, 6:30 p.m. (JP Sports)
Game 8: (W2) Auburn vs. (E3) Tennessee, 8:45 p.m. (JP Sports)
Semifinal Round
Game 9: Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner, Noon (JP Sports)
Game 10: Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner, 2:15 p.m. (JP Sports)
Finals
Game 11: Game 9 winner vs. Game 10 winner, Noon (CBS)