BATON ROUGE — The LSU Tigers found a way to overcome the helter-skelter pressure offense and defense of Tennessee to win its 10th consecutive SEC home game Saturday night, 88-74, over the Volunteers at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The win puts the Tigers at 10-5 on the season and 2-0 in the SEC Western Division. Tennessee, under first-year coach Bruce Pearl, lost for just the second time in 13 games and is 2-1 in the SEC Eastern Division. The win was LSU’s 10th consecutive SEC home win dating back to the final SEC home game of the 2003-04 season. LSU was 8-0 in the league at the Maravich Center in 2004-05.
LSU committed 25 turnovers in the game, 17 in the first 20 minutes, but shot 19-of-25 (76.0%) from the field in the second half and 20-of-26 (76.9%) from the foul line in the final 20 minutes as LSU broke open a 30-27 halftime advantage to outscore Tennessee, 58-47, in the final stanza to win going away before a paid crowd of 9,733.
Tyrus Thomas (12) goes high to block Tennessee’s Andre Patterson (22) during the first half (AP Photo/Bill Feig)
Glen Davis led the way for the Tigers with a league-tying high ninth double-double with 24 points and 10 rebounds, making 10-of-13 shots from the field in 25 minutes. Tyrus Thomas just missed a triple double with 17 points (a perfect 7-of-7 from the field) with nine rebounds and a season high nine blocked shots. Tasmin Mitchell added 13 points, Darrel Mitchell 11 and Darnell Lazare 10.
The 18 points of C. J. Watson led Tennessee, with Major Wingate and Stanley Asumnu getting 13 each and Andre Patterson 10. Chris Lofton, who came in averaging 16.8 points per game, was just 1-of-7 from the field and 0-of-4 from the arc in scoring just two points against the Tiger defense.
LSU, the nation’s top rebounding margin team, pulled down 43 boards to just 25 for the Volunteers and shot 64.6 percent for the game with 13 blocks and 10 steals. Tennessee shot just 27 percent (10-of-37) in the first half and was unable to take advantage of a lot of LSU’s turnovers and finished shooting 40 percent (30-of-75) for the game.
LSU never trailed in the game after a tie at 4-4 but never could get away from the Volunteers in the opening 20 minutes because of the turnovers, but the Tigers were able to make shots and defensively forced Tennessee into several bad shots to lead 30-27 at the half.
The Tigers came roaring out of the locker room and in the first three minutes outscored Tennessee, 9-0, to up the margin to 12, 39-27. In the run, Garrett Temple hit a jumper and a free throw, Darrel Mitchell hit a layup, Tasmin Mitchell a jumper and Ben Voogd a jumper. Tennessee closed the ame to two, 46-44, at the 12:08 mark but a 7-0 run got the Tigers out to an advantage they never let go.
LSU travels to Starkville, Miss., on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. to take on Mississippi State before returning to the Maravich Assembly Center next Saturday at 2 p.m. to host Alabama.
LSU HEAD COACH JOHN BRADY
Opening Statement…
“Our goals coming into that game were to, first of all, defend Chris Lofton and make it difficult for C.J. Watson to get to the goal. C.J. Watson is a very good, experienced senior guard. He had a decent game, but we did bother him, I think, from time to time. Chris Lofton is the key to their team in making threes. He was 1-for-7 tonight, 0-for-4 from the three, and that’s the first time this year anybody’s been able to do that to him.”
“Our other goal was also take away the threes throughout the whole game. It started individually with those two players. Also (Jordan) Smith, if you watch the tape of what he did against Texas in Austin, he was incredible with some shots that he made there. We held him 3-for-12 from the floor, and their overall team 6-for-22 from the three-point line. They were by far shooting 45 percent or so from the three-point line, making 11 or 12 threes a game. That was a key for us.”
“The third thing we wanted to do was beat them on the board. The stats bear that out — 43 to 25 on the glass. We wanted to throw the ball inside, which we were able to do the second half. The fourth goal we had was to take care of the ball. The first 20 minutes we didn’t do a very good job of that. In spite of that, I didn’t think our turnovers in the first half in the full court as much as it was once we crossed the half court. I thought we had some trouble with the ball. The second half we had eight turnovers, which against a team like that that presses all the time, eight turnovers it quite good for our team to have in a half.”
“I think that was really the difference in the game. Our ability to guard the three, our ability to stop their two key players, particularly Lofton, to rebound the ball, to throw the ball inside, which we did to Glen (Davis) and Tyrus (Thomas) particularly down the stretch in the second half almost every possession, and then we took better care of the ball, which was our fifth goal. We did that the second half and were kind of able to separate the score. We also got fouled, went to the free throw line and made some free throws down the stretch, which was positive for our team to be able to do.”
“The thing I like best about our team right now is defensively what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. We’re defending well. We’re making people miss. We’re going back and rebounding the ball. Tyrus Thomas and Glen Davis are very good together. They seem to remind me at times of Stromile (Swift) and Jabari (Smith) at how well they play together, how well they got along. That’s a very good thing for our team.”
“I thought Ben Voogd came in and played well off the bench. He was rattled a little bit early, but I thought the second half he played good for us. We were able to play four freshmen on the floor at times without Darrel Mitchell, which was a real positive for our team to be able to do. Darnell Lazare continues to give us good play off the bench. We’ve got to get Magnum Rolle more relaxed and give him some success out there because he’s going to be a good player also.”
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
On blocking so many shots…
“I blocked a few shots but I still have to be more disciplined. I got a couple of fouls and goal tending calls. I still have to work on my discipline to become a better defender.”
On the team’s improvement in the second half…
“We just passed the ball inside more. Darrel (Mitchell), Tasmin (Mitchell) and Garrett (Temple) were able to execute on their perimeter shots as well.”
On the team’s performance…
“I just think we did a good job from the guards to the big men on overcoming their defensive press. They had a very good defensive press. They had us going for a little why but we kept our composure and we delivered.”
On the team’s turnaround in the second half…
“The key was not to turn the ball over. We prepared ourselves and coach prepared us to execute our plays especially our press offense.”
TENNESSEE QUOTES
Head Coach Bruce Pearl
“They had 13 blocks and probably a dozen more chances. It was a difficult, difficult night for us not to shoot the ball well, obviously because of how good their interior defense is. We would have liked to have been more patient offensively. Glen Davis was the difference in the second half. We couldn’t stop him.”
On guard Chris Lofton …
“He wasn’t hunting his shot. I thought several times when he was open he didn’t shoot it. He’s one of the best shooters in the country but he just didn’t have it tonight. Obviously, it is a tough opponent for him not to have it. Our perimeter offense didn’t have the attack.”
F Andre Patterson
“That 9-0 run at the beginning of the second half kind of hurt us. They pretty much controlled the ball in the second half and did a good job with our pressure. Early, we were able to force them into some turnovers. Glen Davis played well in the second half.”