BATON ROUGE — LSU’s 13-game home winning streak came to an end Saturday afternoon as 20th-ranked Mississippi State knocked off the Tigers, 64-54, before a raucous paid crowd of 12,161 at the Maravich Assembly Center.
The Tigers fall for only the second time in 14 games and go to 2-1 in the Southeastern Conference. Mississippi State is now 13-1 on the season and 3-1 in the SEC.
Jaime Lloreda led the Tigers with 13 points and nine rebounds as he played all 40 minutes for the first time in his LSU career, while Antonio Hudson added 11 points and Darrel Mitchell 10. Gary Ervin off the State bench led the Bulldogs with 13 points, while Branden Vincent added 12, Timmy Bowers 11 and Winsome Frazier, 10. Lawrence Roberts, who was averaging a double double for State, finished with nine points and four rebounds.
The game started with two six point runs, first by Mississippi State and then by LSU that left the game knotted at 6-6 at the first television timeout. Then the Bulldogs went on a 17-0 run over the next 7:52 to go up 23-6 with 8:22 to go, getting many points off LSU early turnovers. The Tigers would turn it over 13 times in the first half, 19 for the game with MSU getting 22 points off the turnovers.
Again it was the zone that LSU had trouble with offensively and at times the Bulldogs were dropping back further and further to double and triple team Lloreda and Brandon Bass, who was held to just eight points and three rebounds.
But LSU began to find some range of motion and accuracy in its jump shot late in the half, cutting the margin to 12, 27-15, at the intermission.
The Tigers in the first 20 minutes were 5-of-19 from the floor (26.3 percent), one-of-nine from the arc, and LSU was six down in the rebound column at the half.
LSU slowly began to climb back in the game at the start of the second half, cutting a 33-24 deficit down to two, 33-31, with 14:41 to go on a three pointer and a lay up by Xavier Whipple and a lay up by Darrel Mitchell. The Tigers would tie the game on a bucket by Lloreda at 37-37 and took its only lead of the game, 42-40, at the 8:40 mark on a trey by Mitchell, forcing a Mississippi State timeout.
“I was proud of our team in the second half and the way it was able to battle back after getting ourselves in a hole and being able to come back and take the lead,” said LSU Coach John Brady. “At halftime we made a little adjustment against the zone. We started to set some high ball screens on it. We were able to get their zone unbalanced and we were able to move the ball and get some penetration and get some open looks at the goal.”
The Bulldogs came back and never gave up the lead, taking it for good at 44-42 on two free throws by Frazier that started a 9-3 run which advanced the lead to 51-45 at the 5:19 mark.
“I think it is very obvious, not in the first half, but in the beginning of the second half when they got back in the game and went ahead, our team never panicked. We kept our composure and went up on a run to get back up six. That is so big to be able to do on the road,” said Mississippi State Coach Rick Stansbury. It was just a gutsy team effort to go on the road and win this basketball game against this LSU basketball team.”
The Tigers got it back to two, 51-49, with 4:22 to play on lay ups by Lloreda and Hudson, but the Tigers couldn’t stop State and the lead at the end would go to the final 10-point margin.
“We weren’t able to stop them enough,” said Brady. “Them made some plays at the other end just off ball screens and taking off the dribble. Any kind of set they drew up to beat us. They just beat us off the bounce a few times and made a couple of big shots. We got some consecutive stops to be able to come back from 17 down or whatever it was. We weren’t able to make enough stops at critical moments to build on our lead.”
For the game, LSU out shot Mississippi State, 45.8 percent to 40 percent as both teams shot over 50 percent in the second half. The rebounds ended up 33 apiece and for one of the few times this year, LSU was able to take only 10 free throws, to 20 for MSU, with the Tigers making five.
LSU’s Wednesday opponent, Ole Miss, lost 86-78, to Arkansas earlier in the day.