HOUSTON — The LSU Tiger basketball team went into its Christmas break a team looking for answers defensively and on the boards after the Houston Cougars came away with an 81-72 decision Tuesday night at the University of Houston’s Hofheinz Pavilion.
LSU dropped its second straight game to fall to 5-3 entering a four-day Christmas break. The team will return to practice on Dec. 26 in preparation for the Nokia Sugar Bowl Classic in New Orleans against Florida State on Dec. 30. The Tigers are in the midst of a long road string of games that will take LSU to Salt Lake City to play Utah on Jan. 3 and to Alabama on Jan. 8 to open conference play before returning to Baton Rouge to host South Carolina on Jan. 12.
The Cougars were able to break the game open after a seesaw first 20 minutes that saw LSU jump out to a quick advantage, 14-7, six minutes into the contest. But the Cougars, playing in front of one of their largest crowds of the year, 5,302, quickly moved the game back to even at 18-18 before taking a 24-18 lead of their own. The Tigers scored the next six to tie it again.
Although Houston would have a 37-31 lead with 1:34 to go in the first half, Brandon Bass had a dunk and Antonio Hudson a layup in the final minute to make the lead only two, 37-35, at the intermission.
But out of the dressing room there was no response from LSU as Brian Latham got inside for a layup twice, Andre Owens hit a dunk to advance the Houston lead early in the second half to nine. Hudson posted a bucket for LSU, but Houston hurried down and got a layup from Lanny Smith.
Hudson added a free throw to make it 48-40 at the 16:03 mark, but the Cougars would score the next eight points to expand the Houston lead to 56-40 with 13:55 to play. The lead would go to as much as 19 later in the half, before LSU whittled it down to seven in the final two minutes.
Bass and Hudson were LSU’s only real scoring threats with Bass double doubling for the third time this season and second consecutive game with 22 points and a career high 15 rebounds. Hudson had 20 points on the game as LSU’s only other player in double figures. Bass also moved into the school’s top 10 list in career blocks with six on the game.
Lanny Smith again gave an LSU opponent another 22-point scorer this season as he hit 9-of-16 field goals in 27 minutes. Andre Owens had 17 points and Latham 14. The Cougars shot 40.3 percent from the field (29-of-72), 8-of-23 from the arc and 15-of-21 from the free throw line. The Cougars out rebounded LSU, 42-39, with 17 offensive rebounds. LSU shot 46.4 percent from the floor (26-of-56), a season low 4-of-17 from three-point range and 16-of-26 from the line. LSU had 16 turnovers and Houston scored 20 points off the turnovers.
“We need to get better at rebounding and playing defense,” said LSU Coach John Brady. “I am determined to work on that and make it better. It’s not a strategy problem with the defense; we couldn’t stop the one-on-one plays. We have watched Houston a tape 100 times and knew what they were going to do. We just didn’t execute on the defense. Our lack of execution is not a problem with the players because we basically have the same players we had last year when we were a good defensive team. The other teams are just making key shots and out-hustling us to loose balls and rebounds.”