BATON ROUGE — The LSU Tiger basketball team, rebounded from what Coach John Brady called a “casual” start to the game to defeat the Tulane Green Wave, 75-58, Tuesday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The win, putting the Tigers at 8-4 going into Saturday’s 3 p.m. regionally-televised on CBS game versus No. 2 Connecticut (at Hartford), was the 58th consecutive win by LSU at home over a Louisiana school dating back to 1988. LSU was 6-0 at home this year against Louisiana competition.
Tulane, losers to LSU for the fourth consecutive season since the series resumed after a 20-year hiatus, falls to 3-8.
Tyrus Thomas led LSU in scoring with 20 points and just missed a fourth straight double double with nine rebounds. Thomas also had two assists, two steals and four blocks. Darrel Mitchell had 13 points and his three assists put him in to the top 10 in career assists. Glen Davis did double up although his scoring performance was down with 10 points, he did nothing to hurt his league leading rebound average with 10 boards.
Tulane’s David Gomez, from Baton Rouge, led the Wave with 21 points in 32 minutes off the bench as another bench player Andrew Garcia had 11 points in 28 minutes as the only players in double figures for the Wave.
Neither team shot the ball particularly well from the field with LSU making just 23-of-59 for 39 percent and Tulane 19-of-59 for 32.2 percent. Both teams, however, did convert at the line with Tulane making 16-of-21 and LSU 26-of-31, including one streak of 17 straight.
“I thought our team looked casual to start the game,” said Brady. “The didn’t play with the enthusiasm that they had played with to this point. I don’t think our approach was as good as it needed to be, but I thought we created a little energy there in the second half. We were able to defend and really protect the goal. It was kind of a workmanlike win.”
Tulane led the game just once, at 2-1, but after jumping out to a 19-7 lead at the 9:39 mark and 26-12 at the 6:25 mark, the Tigers let up and Tulane slowly got themselves back in the contest, outscoring the Tigers 16-8 the rest of the way. Twice in the final 70 seconds, the Wave cut the game to just four points at 30-26 and 32-28 before LSU went to the dressing room up 34-28.
Tulane out rebounded LSU 20-19 in the first 20 minutes.
But in the second half, the Tigers began to assert their authority and slowly worked the lead to 15, 50-35, at the 13:42 mark on a Thomas dunk and then 21, 58-37, at the 9:09 mark on a Ben Voogd layup. The advantage reached 27 points, 68-41, at the 6:25 mark on a Thomas bucket before the Tigers starting clearing the bench and Tulane was able to cut the game down to the final margin.
“It was a win, and certainly we need our two good days of practice because we certainly have a major challenge for our team on Saturday against Connecticut.”
LSU vs. Tulane
January 3, 2006
LSU HEAD COACH JOHN BRADY
Opening Statement…
“I thought our team looked casual to start the game. They didn’t play with the enthusiasm that they had played with to this point, maybe in between the Ohio State loss and what they anticipate doing on Saturday. I don’t think our approach was as good as it needed to be, but I thought we created a little energy there in the second half. We were able to defend and really protect the goal. Tyrus Thomas really makes a difference around the goal. Every time he gets close to somebody they think he’s going to be there to block the shot it seems. So, he helps us around the goal.”
“It was kind of a workmanlike win. We had a few chances to really separate the score to get it really over 20 on several occasions, and we either missed a layup or something didn’t go as well as we’d have like. It was a win. We held them to 58 points. They held them to a lower field goal percentage. I thought we missed a lot of easy shots. I’ve never seen us miss that many easy baskets. We did get to the free throw line 31 times and did make 26, which is probably our best out of the year. We need to put a game together. We need a good field goal stat and a good free throw stat.”
“Tulane played hard. They got 39 rebounds on us and went to the board a little bit when the ball went up. We made them miss some shots and battled them around the goal a little bit. It could have been a little bit different. We really needed to defend them around the basket. They’re not a great shooting team, which we knew. We rebounded it a little bit ourselves, but I thought we missed a lot of easy baskets. It was a win, and certainly we need our two good days of practice because we certainly have a major challenge for our team on Saturday against Connecticut.”
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
On having players step up when others have off nights…
“I think it’s very important for all of us to come out aggressively and focus on the game because you never know what each game is going to bring. Tonight Darrel (Mitchell) and Glen (Davis) had off games so somebody had to step up. That’s what’s good about this team. We have about nine or 10 that any one of us can step up on any given night, spark some offense and play good defense. We can just play solid basketball.”
On becoming more comfortable in his role as a starter…
“I’m just taking everything possession by possession. There’s really no difference between starting and coming off the bench. It’s just what you do while you’re in the game. I just take everything possession by possession. If the play is called for me I just try to execute to the best of my ability.”
On having others step up when key players are having off nights…
“If Glen (Davis) and I are having games where we’re struggling in it’s always good for other guys to come in and make baskets.”
Tulane Head Coach Dave Dickerson
On LSU’s athleticism…
“There the most athletic team we’re going to play all year and they did a good job of using it tonight. Our guys were looking over their shoulder because they blocked a lot of our shots in the first half. Our starters were five for 28 and you can’t be five for 28 on the road, especially against a good team. Hopefully we won’t see a team like that again this year and we can put some of those lay-ups we had in the basket.”
On what Tulane can take from the game…
“The thing that we have to be cognizant of as a coaching staff is that we are getting better. We need to know that we’re playing hard, giving the effort and we’re getting better. We’ve got to find ways we’re getting better on the tape so that we can show our guys. I think we’re getting better and hopefully if we can get some more home games under our belt we can build some confidence. Hopefully, we can be a good team in January and February.”