Second in a series of press releases about the 1986 LSU men’s basketball team’s run to the Final Four, re-written by the LSU Sports Information Department for LSUsports.net.
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by Ben Wright
LSU Sports Information
BATON ROUGE — LSU’s men’s basketball team snapped a two-game NCAA Tournament losing streak, knocking off the Purdue Boilermakers, 94-87, in a double overtime thriller in front off a crowd of 13,749 at the Maravich Assembly Center.
The Boilermakers were able to shut down All-SEC player John Williams for most of the night, holding the Tigers’ leading scorer to just 16 points. However, covering Williams proved to a heavy burden for Purdue as LSU’s other four starters each produced double-digit scoring performances.
LSU’s two-guard Anthony Wilson scored a career-best 25 points. After Purdue whittled an 11-point Tiger lead down to two in the waning moments of the contest, the Boilermakers were forced to foul with 16 seconds left. Wilson went to line on each of LSU’s final four possessions in overtime, sinking 7-of-8 free throws and giving the Tigers the final margin of victory.
“Williams didn’t hurt us as much as Wilson did,” said Purdue head coach Gene Keady, who drew his second technical of the game with four seconds left and set Wilson up for two of his deceive free throws. “(Wilson) made his shots when he had to.”
With LSU holding a 39-35 halftime lead, the second half became a see-saw battle. The contest was tied 15 times during the final period of regulation and Purdue forward Todd Mitchell refused to let the Tigers get away.
Mitchell scored a game-high 31 points, shooting 11 of 13 from the floor and 9 of 12 from the stripe. Doug Lee and Troy Lewis each put up 20 for the Boilermakers as well.
“I thought Mitchell’s performance was the best single performance by any athlete we’ve faced this year,” said LSU head coach Dale Brown.
LSU missed out on a couple of opportunities to finish the game at the end of regulation. Center Ricky Blanton and Wilson both missed potential game winners in the closing moments.
After a slow paced first overtime that saw each team score only four points, Williams finally broke loose in the second extra period. Williams fed two assists to Wilson on consecutive possessions, scored a basket, tallied a steal and pulled down two rebounds during a three minute span to help the Tigers gain the 11-point advantage.
“When it’s late in the game, John just starts taking over,” said LSU point guard Derrick Taylor, who finished with 20 points. “He just has the ability to do that so it didn’t surprise me tonight.”
It was after Williams fouled out with 43 seconds left that the Tigers lead fell to two. That’s when Wilson clinched the win with his clutch free throw shooting.
The raucous sell-out crowd in attendance may also have been a deciding factor down the stretch, something that had worried Purdue all week.
“I don’t think that the crowd should have hurt us but it did,” said Boilermaker Mack Gadis. “When they would hit a spurt the crowd was always there to keep them in it.”
“It was a great victory and I want to personally thank our fans,” said Brown.
With the win LSU moves to 23-11 on the season and will now face Memphis State in the second round.