BATON ROUGE — The LSU Tigers gamely held off charge after charge of the Georgia Bulldogs to break a three-game losing streak, 63-59, Wednesday night at the Maravich Assembly Center.
The Tigers, 13-4, are now 3-3 in the league, equaling the best six-game league record for LSU since the Tigers started 4-0 in the 1994-95 season. Georgia dropped to 9-8 and 1-5 in the SEC.
Jaime Lloreda hit 9-of-13 shots and scored 18 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for his 10th double-double of the year to lead LSU. Brandon Bass got his game back on track with 17 points and eight rebounds and Darrel Mitchell came off the bench to add 12. Jonas Hayes and Rashad Wright added 14 points, Damien Wilkins 11 and Buzz Wehunt 10.
“I thought our team played hard,” said Coach John Brady. “I thought our team really deserved to win the game. We defended really well and rebounded the ball well. We just need to get a little more consistent at the perimeter and make some shots. I thought we took good shots and got the ball where we needed to. We had a problem with turnovers in the first half, but we made enough plays to win. I thought our team played hard and I was proud of them. We needed a win. It would have been heartbreaking to lose that game.”
The game was a defensive battle throughout the first half; with seven ties and several lead changes as the Tigers took a 26-23 advantage at the half. The game would be tied three more times in the second half, the last at 43-43 with 9:37 to play, before two free throws each by Bass and Mitchell and a Lloreda lay up game LSU a 49-43 advantage with 8:20 to play. The Tigers would take the advantage to eight two minutes later and opened a 55-45 lead on two Tack Minor free throws with 5:53 to play.
But the Bulldogs wouldn’t fold, cutting the game to 60-56 on a Chris Daniels bucket with 3:20 to go. LSU turned the ball over on its next two possessions on offensive fouls, in between a Georgia free throw and Wehunt made a lay up to cut the game to 60-59 with 24 seconds left.
On the inbounds, LSU dribbled time away, threw a wayward pass toward the LSU bench, which Bass went high to save, gave to Lloreda who in return hit Bass underneath for a lay up that gave LSU a 62-59 lead with 12 seconds to play. Georgia missed its’ final try for a tying trey and Regis Koundjia rebounded with 0.4 on the clock.
Koundjia made the first free throw for the final four-point margin, icing the game, but not before a Georgia player grabbed the second free throw miss and tossed in a 90 foot three-point heave which was ruled by the officials to have come after the buzzer.
“We didn’t want to put them on the free throw line and we made sure we took care of the glass (our rebounding Georgia 34-28),” said Brady. “They went 1-of-14 from three (point line). South Carolina was 1-of-23 against us. That is pretty good defending the arc. I thought from a defensive standpoint and a rebounding standpoint we were pretty good. We won the game in spite of not having any perimeter shooting. We struggled a little bit offensively. We won the game in spite of (Xavier) Whipple not shooting it well, (Antonio) Hudson not shooting it well. I was glad to see Regis (Koundjia) make a three.”
The Tigers now go to Alabama on Saturday for a 6 p.m. game on SEC-TV (Fox Sports). The Tigers return home for two games next week, Feb. 4, at 7 p.m. against Tennessee and a noon game on Feb. 7 against Arkansas.