NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Tack Minor scored a career-high 23 points and dished out nine assists to help LSU beat Florida State 67-50 Thursday night in the Nokia Sugar Bowl Classic.
The Tigers (6-3) were coming off two straight losses and trying to avoid the first three-game December losing streak since Dale Brown‘s final season as coach in 1996.
Florida State (7-6) had won three of its last four games outrebounding its opponents and outscoring them by an average of 20.8 points per game.
The Seminoles came nowhere near those marks against the Tigers, shooting 41 percent from the field and being outrebounded by LSU 42-30. Florida State also had 16 turnovers.
It was the sixth time this season that Minor has scored in double figures. Antonio Hudson scored 18 for LSU.
Florida State was led by Jason Rich with 10 points.
While LSU’s up-tempo offense has put the Tigers at the top of the Southeastern Conference in scoring, the defense has given up at least 79 points in each of the last three games.
Against the Seminoles they were more effective, especially in the second half when they held Florida State to 9-of-26 from the field.
Both teams were cold to start the second half. The first basket of the half came almost three minutes in when Von Wafer scored to cut LSU’s lead to 35-29. Five minutes into the half the Tigers led 41-33 as LSU shot 25 percent and the Seminoles 20 percent.
Florida State pulled to within five _ 47-42 _ on a basket by Jason Rich with 7:52 left. But the Tigers used a 10-2 run to go up 58-44.
The Tigers streaked ahead taking a 33-18 lead with 3:54 left in the first half. But Florida State rallied with a 9-2 run to cut the lead to 35-27 at halftime.
LSU Coach John Brady
“I think that we defended and rebounded, and we did enough offensively to win the game. We got tired for a stretch their in the second half before we had our second wind. They made a run at us, which most teams do, and we were able to disband it and make some nice plays down the stretch.
“Defending and rebounding as we did tonight, good things can happen. The good thing about the game is that we won in spite of Brandon (Bass) not being effective for us offensively and Darrel Mitchell struggling a little bit offensively. But Brandon got us a couple of big blocks down the stretch. It was good for our team to be able to play as well as we played without Brandon and Darrel having good offensive nights for us.
“It was a good win for us. I’m glad our team responded the way we did to the challenge we put to them to rebound and defend better. Our team jsut needs to get better at defending and rebounding, and I think we started toward that tonight. If we can do those things consistently, we have enough offensive weapons. We just need to guard every possession like it’s the last possession of the game.”
On LSU’s perimeter play —
“I think our team is aware that when our best player in Brandon is struggling offensively because of foul trouble, other players need to step to the forefront and make some plays for us. We had a couple of guys do that. I thought that Ross Neltner gave us some nice minutes and nice rebounds, aand he had a a big offensive board down the stretch, and he defended well.
“It was a good win for our team. Hopefully we can build on this and go to Salt Lake City and beat a good Utah team (Jan. 3).”