NEW ORLEANS — The LSU men’s basketball team ran its record to 8-0 and in the process learned more about its young team, as the speedy Tigers were able to defeat the pressing style of Alabama-Birmingham, 78-62, in the second half of the annual Nokia Sugar Bowl Basketball Classic Saturday at the New Orleans Arena.
The Tigers and Mississippi State, winners over Tulane in the opener, both remain unbeaten three weeks prior to the two teams meeting on Jan. 17 in Baton Rouge.
LSU got almost identical lines from its big forwards, senior Jaime Lloreda and freshman Brandon Bass as both scored 22 points and had double figure rebounds. Lloreda was 6-of- 11 from the field and 10-of-13 from the free throw line with 11 boards, while Bass of 6-of-10 from the field, a percent 10-of-10 from the free throw line with 10 rebounds. Darrel Mitchell was again in double figures in his second consecutive start with 12 points and Tack Minor had 11 points.
UAB, now 6-3 on the year, was led by Ronell Taylor who also had 22 points, while Gabe Kennedy had 13 points and Sidney Ball added 12 for the Blazers.
The Tigers have now won three straight games over Conference USA foes Southern Miss, Tulane and Alabama Birmingham, going into LSU’s first true road test of the season, a 7:30 p.m. content Tuesday night at Houston’s Hofheinz Pavilion. LSU doesn’t return to the Maravich Assembly Center until Jan. 10 in its second conference game against Alabama.
“I think besides the first part of the second half, we defended them very well,” said LSU Coach John Brady. “We came in to the game with three keys to defend them, which were rebound, turnovers and field goal percentages. We held them to 39 percent shooting, they came into the game forcing 23 turnovers and they only forced 16 and we had 17 offensive rebounds to their seven. We just stuck to those three points and did what we wanted to do. This was our best opponent so far this season in terms of athleticism and having a collection of quick players.”
UAB came at LSU with a style of basketball very reminiscent to LSU fans from head coach’s Mike Anderson’s days as an assistant coach at Arkansas to Nolan Richardson. The Blazers pressed LSU from the beginning and when not full-court pressing, would show various mid-court and front court traps to try to befuddle the Tigers.
But LSU, which has shown its strength in the last two weeks against slower teams in its half court offense set and with solid defense, had to develop a different strategy and for the most part it paid off.
LSU was able to get lay up attempts early on and Bass and Lloreda were forcing the Blazers to foul and once getting to the line the pair was capitalizing. Tied at 12, the Tigers went on their first run of the game, scoring the next 13 points to go up 25-12 with 10 minutes to go in the first half. LSU led at the intermission, 44-34.
The Tigers struggled early in the second half getting things to go and UAB behind the shooting of Ronnel Taylor began to chip away at the lead, cutting the margin to 50-48 on a Taylor lay up with 13:51 to play.
But LSU wouldn’t give in. Mitchell hit a trey, Darnell Lazare hit two buckets and Lloreda hit two free throws and the Tigers were back up 11, 59-48, with 8:26 to play.
“What I like is that our team got it back right,” said Brady. “I told them we were playing with the same defensive intensity that we had in the first half.”
LSU shot 48.6 percent for the game and hit 23-of-27 free throws (85.2 percent). The Tigers out-rebounded UAB, 49-28.