BILOXI, Miss. — The efforts of a strong second half comeback by the LSU Tigers was for nothing as LSU failed to hold on to the lead, allowing Southern Miss to rally to force overtime and eventually win the game, 88-84, Saturday afternoon in the Mississippi Coast Coliseum.
The loss, the first game in a five-game set away from the home confines of the Pete Maravich Center, drops LSU to 5-2 going into Tuesday’s game at Houston against the Cougars at 7 p.m. at Hofheinz Pavilion. Southern Miss is now 7-2 on the year.
Glen Davis led LSU with an LSU high 27 points in 38 minutes of play. Tack Minor tied his career high with 17 points, while Darrel Mitchell played all 45 minutes and scored 14 points and Brandon Bass had his second double-double of the season with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
The game marked the first time the Tigers have lost in the John Brady era when scoring more than 80 points for the first time in 46 games.
It was all Southern Miss early in the game, jumping out quickly hitting shots and beating LSU down court to get a 26-13 advantage with 8:14 to go in the first half. That lead would expand to as much as 16, 35-19, on a layup by Jason Forte with 4:40 to play. The Tigers were able to go on a 10-5 run in the final moments to cut it to 40-29 at intermission.
In the first half, Southern Miss hit 16-of-31 attempts for 51.6 percent and 4-of-7 from the three-point arc.
But at the second half, the Tigers kicked it in to gear, playing with a passion that hasn’t been seen since before the West Virginia game. LSU slowly whittled the lead down to four, to three and battled Southern Miss back and forth before tying the game and taking the lead, 53-53 at the 12:34 mark on two free throws by Davis.
The Tiger offense began to find the big freshman down low and when he was able to make a move to the basket, Southern Miss really didn’t have much of an answer.
A Davis layup would push the lead to 57-54 and then after a Mitchell steal, an Antonio Hudson lay in gave the Tigers a 59-54 advantage as the clock reached the 9:40 mark. After a Southern Miss miss, Hudson came down and hit a jumper and LSU was up seven, 61-54, with 8:59 to play.
The Tigers began trading points with the Golden Eagles but still held a 71-64 advantage as the game went to the final three minutes.
Southern Miss tried to chip away, but Hudson made a free throw at the 1:32 mark for a 74-69 advantage. Jarekus Singleton hit a jumper to cut it to three, 74-71. Tack Minor tried to go to the goal was fouled, made one free throw and the game was 75-71 with 1:12 to play.
Jasper Johnson made a jumper with 45 seconds left to cut it to two, but Davis made two free throws to put LSU in apparent good shape, 77-73 with 40 seconds left. Johnson hit another jumper with 27 seconds left and LSU proceeded to come down the floor and turn the ball over giving Southern Miss the final possession of the half and Michael Ford hit a short shot to tie the game at 77-77 with one second to play, sending the game to another five minutes.
In the overtime, both teams missed some good scoring chances and traded leads back and fourth with LSU getting an 82-81 advantage on another shot by Davis. Southern Miss missed three shots at it and after an LSU rebound and a timeout, LSU came down and missed a shot. On the other end Singleton would put in a missed shot to give Southern Miss the lead for good, 83-82, with 57 seconds to play in overtime.
The Tigers came down and quickly missed a three-pointer and USM was fouled. Singleton made one free throw for an 84-82 advantage with 39 seconds to play. The Tigers got the ball but missed a shot again and then Southern Miss made four free throws down the stretch to ice the game.
Johnson led Southern Miss with 27 points (10 rebounds) on 11-of-15 shooting, while Singleton added 23 points. Michael Ford added 10.
“The game came down to defense,” said LSU Coach John Brady. “We’re not quite good enough. We made a few poor decisions towards the end that cost us the victory. We need to get better at that.”
The Golden Eagles would shoot 46.3 percent for the game. LSU would shoot 50.8 percent for the game after shooting 16-of-24 in the second 20 minutes. The Tigers, however, shot just 2-of-10 in the overtime period, including 0-of-4 three-pointers. Southern Miss out rebounded LSU, 38-33.