JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) – After a taxing night, “Big Baby” needed some relief.
“Can we get some AC up here please,” LSU’s Glen Davis said, folding a stat sheet and waving it in front of his face. “It’s hot.”
The Southeastern Conference player of the year heated up at just the right time for the fourth-seeded Tigers, who overcame a sluggish start to beat No. 13 seed Iona 80-64 in the first round of the Atlanta Regional on Thursday night.
Davis, a 6-foot-9, 310-pound sophomore nicknamed “Big Baby,” took over after missing eight of his first nine shots and being held to five points in the opening half. He finished 7-of-15 from the field and had 13 rebounds, and left Iona’s Ricky Soliver shaking his head in amazement.
“I didn’t know he was that big,” Soliver said. “When we were warming up, I saw him and my eyes just opened up. He’s a load down there. I didn’t think he was that much of a problem. But a big guy like that shooting fadeaways? He killed us down low.”
Soliver and Steve Burtt, the highest-scoring guard tandem in Division I, did all they could to keep Iona (23-8) in the game. Burtt had 23 points and Soliver 14 in their final college contests, but were a combined 2-for-14 on 3-point attempts.
LSU (24-8), which trailed 37-32 at the half, rebounded from a disappointing loss to Florida in the SEC tournament to advance to a second-round matchup against either fifth-seeded Syracuse or No. 12 Texas A&M on Saturday.
Darrel Mitchell scored 19 for the Tigers, who used an 18-7 run to pull away from a 38-38 tie. Iona trimmed an 11-point deficit to 60-57 with about six minutes left, but LSU spurted again with Davis delivering a fallaway jumper in the lane to key a 10-0 run.
LSU shot 65 percent in the second half, with Davis making six of seven shots to wear down Iona’s exhausted frontcourt.
“I was analyzing the guys’ nonverbal communication. I learned that in sociology,” Davis said. “When I see that, when I see fatigue, some negative things, you’ve got to go straight at them.”
After falling short in the SEC tournament the last two seasons and playing poorly in a first-round loss to UAB in last year’s NCAAs, LSU feels it needs to make a strong run to essentially validate the progress coach John Brady has made in rebuilding the Tigers’ program.
Davis has been a big part of the success and figured to give LSU a significant advantage against a guard-oriented team like Iona, whose tallest defenders all yielded at least 70 pounds to the bulky, yet agile LSU star.
Mitchell, the lone senior starter for LSU, conceded that winning was a relief.
“We’ve been in the postseason three times – twice in the NCAA dance and once in the NIT – and we’ve exited the first round in all three of those events,” Mitchell said. “So to get this win is a big weight off my shoulders.”
Burtt and Soliver dominated early, giving Iona hope of getting its first victory in the NCAA tournament since coach Jeff Ruland was the team’s star in 1980. The high-scoring tandem produced nearly 42 points a game during the regular season and combined for 24 of Iona’s 37 in the opening half.
But once Davis took over, he was clearly the best player on the floor. His teammates fed off his energy from the moment he rebounded his own miss and scored for LSU’s first basket of the second half.
Iona shot under 27 percent (8-for-30) in the second half and finished 3-for-18 from behind the 3-point arc.
“As a team they wore us down with their size,” Ruland said. “Obviously 65 percent in the second half’s not going to cut it. We had a period there where we had some open looks and missed them. That’s when they got the lead and never relinquished it.”
LSU Player Quotes
Glen Davis
On his second half difference:
“I think it was the will. The will and determination that I had. I wanted to win. It was a little bit of them getting tired and my will to win.”
Darrel Mitchell
On getting out of the first round:
“It was a big weight off of my shoulders. We have been in the post season three times, twice in the NCAA and once in the NIT, and we exited in the first round in all three of them. It was a big weight off my shoulders.”
Tyrus Thomas
On returning from ankle injury:
“Today was my first game back since spraining my ankle. I was just hoping my team would help me get through it as I worked my way into the flow and tried to get my timing back.”
Glen Davis
On getting the ball down low in the second half:
“It was coach’s idea. He wanted to start off down low to get an inside presence. They were beating us in the paint to start off. Coach just called the right play at the right time and we stuck with it.”
LSU Coach John Brady
On LSU’s second half play:
“We didn’t make a lot of adjustments in the second half, we just talked about doing what we are supposed to do a little better. Then we made a commitment to throw the ball to Glen early on and he kind of established us offensively. Darrel had a nice second half, Tasmin Mitchell made some big baskets for us and from a team defensive standpoint, I thought we were much better.”
On having a higher energy level in the second half:
“I think the energy level picked up a little bit after we made those first five or six points of the second half and we took the lead. I thought our energy level defensively picked up.”
On resting Tyrus Thomas in the SEC Tournament to prepare him for NCAA play:
“The prudent thing for me as a coach, and the best thing for our team was to get him as healthy as we possibly could.”
On Iona’s points in the paint:
“The points in the paint, and I addressed it at halftime, wasn’t primarily by their post players. We just gave up some baskets in transition and let them get in the paint for easy scores. Our defense was not as alert or aware as it should have been.”
Iona Head Coach Jeff Ruland
His opening thoughts on tonight’s game:
“I want to congratulate LSU, we lost to a very good team. I’m proud of my guys. I’m going to miss them a lot, the guys who are seniors. We had an unbelievable crew and they didn’t quit.”
On dealing LSU’s size:
“I think this team wore us down with their size, especially in the second half. We had a period when we got some open looks and missed it. That is when they took the lead and never relinquished it. It says a lot about our guys when a team that size has to play zone against us.”
On slowing down the offense in the second half:
“They (LSU) are so long, it’s hard to run when you don’t rebound and make stops. They executed great in the second half and eventually their height and speed wore us down. We’re not going to compete against that caliber of guys playing with one or two players that do not have great games.”
On the seniors playing their final game:
“It really hasn’t sunken in yet. They are special I’ve told people this many times, but I’ll miss them more next year than all their points. I’ll miss them more just being around. Basketball aside I’ll miss them being around and their company.”
Iona Players
Steve Burtt
On the mood of the team after the loss:
“We are all pretty down. We felt we could compete in this game and maybe even get a win. We were pretty confident and it’s tough to have lost. The guys are really down because we really believed.”
Ricky Soliver
On the change from the first half to the second half:
“Our shots just weren’t falling in the second half. We took a couple of extra passes, but it just didn’t work. We played our hearts out in the first half and played hard in the second, but our shots just wouldn’t fall.”
On dealing with Glen Davis:
“I didn’t know he was that big. When I started to practice before the game and saw how big he was I knew he would be a load down low. A big guy like that with a short fade away jumper just killed us down low.”
LSU NCAA TOURNAMENT NOTES
- This was the second meeting between LSU and Iona, with LSU now holding a 2-0 lead in the series.
- LSU will meet 12th-seed Texas A&M, a 66-58 winner over fifth-seed Syracuse in the final game of the night on Thursday.
- In the first half, Iona outscored LSU, 22-6, in the paint and led by a score of 37-32 at the half. In the end, Iona and LSU each had 34 points in the paint.
- LSU shot 53% for the game, while holding Iona to 38%
- The 16-point win ties the second biggest NCAA Tournament game win for LSU — 22 vs. Lamar (3/14/81); 16 vs. Arkansas (3/20/81); 16 vs. Iona (3/16/06).
- Fourth time in an NCAA Tournament game that the Tigers have hit 50 percent of their attempts (5-of-10).
- Glen Davis scored 22 points and has now scored in double figures in 36 consecutive games and also added 13 rebounds to give him his 19th double double of the year, 29th of his career.
- Davis had six blocks, a career high, one better than his previous high of five that he had against Ole Miss earlier this season … Also it tied the second most blocks by an LSU player in an NCAA game — Shaquille O’Neal 11 (vs. BYU, 3/19/92); Stromile Swift 6 (vs. SE Mo. St., 3/16/00); Glen Davis 6 (vs. Iona, 3/16/00)
- Darrel Mitchell now has 254 career three-pointers and his 19 points gives him 1,520 points, putting him 11th all-time in scoring at LSU. He is 41 points behind Ronnie Henderson (1993-96) who stands in 10th … Mitchell also moved to seventh all-time in minutes play with 3,734 … Davis’ 13 rebounds gives him 584 and puts him 24th all-time in career rebounds.
- LSU is now 20-21 all-time in the NCAA Tournament … Iona is 1-9 all-time in the NCAA Tournament.
- The Tigers will have a closed practice on Friday at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena at 1:35 p.m. followed by an interview session with the attending media beginning at 3 p.m. The game Saturday is scheduled as the second game of the Jacksonville doubleheader, in the third regional telecast window for CBS on Saturday, with tip time at
approximately 4:50 p.m. CST.