JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — LSU calls the play “special,” and Darrel Mitchell ran it to perfection.
With the clock running out on his team’s hopes, the Tigers’ lone senior made a long 3-pointer with 3.9 seconds remaining to give the Southeastern Conference regular-season champions a 58-57 victory over Texas A&M on Saturday in the second round of the Atlanta Regional.
“When he let it go, I just felt confident it was going in,” LSU coach John Brady said. “I call him the silent assassin because he doesn’t say much, but when it’s time to deliver he can do that. He’s hit seven or eight of those in his career.”
“Special” is designed to either create a scoring opportunity for SEC player of the year Glen Davis or an opener jumper for Mitchell, who took the biggest shot of his life after Texas A&M bit on a fake pick-and-roll and 6-foot-10 defender Antanas Kavaliauskas switched off Davis to guard Mitchell.
The LSU guard took a couple of dribbles forward. When Kavaliauskas backed off, Mitchell launched a 22-footer to wipe out the 57-55 lead Texas A&M took on Acie Law’s jumper with 19 seconds left.
“It was really unexplainable. When I saw it go in, I saw we had a couple of seconds left, so I couldn’t get as emotional as I wanted to,” Mitchell said.
“It was our two best players involved in the last play of the game with the game on the line. That’s what I’m going with,” Brady added. “It worked this time. You could probably do it other times and it may not work. But this particular case, we made a nice play.”
The victory sends fourth-seeded LSU (25-8) to the regional semifinals against top-seed Duke (32-3) on Thursday night at 6:10 p.m. CT.
Davis led LSU with 21 points, including a key basket in the final minute. Mitchell finished with 16.
The Tigers seemingly were in control when Mitchell made two foul shots for a 53-46 lead with 3:31 to go. But No. 12 seed Texas A&M (22-9), in the tournament for the first time since 1987, wasn’t ready to go home.
The Aggies wiped out the seven-point deficit over the next 91 seconds, then went ahead 55-53 on Joseph Jones’ jump hook in the lane.
“That’s how it’s been all year. Things ain’t always going to go well for us,” Law said. “Coach always tells us to stick with it, continue to fight, continue to fight. We played a bad game. We weren’t ourselves tonight, but we continued to fight.”
The 6-9, 310-pound Davis, nicknamed “Big Baby,” powered his way to the basket for a layup that tied it for the last time.
Mitchell was 1-for-7 from behind the 3-point line, and LSU was 1-for-11 as a team, before he seemingly launched his game-winner in desperation. LSU’s bench celebrated, but there was still time left – especially with the speedy Law on the court for Texas A&M.
Law had 23 points, 12 of them in the final 1:25, in the Aggies’ first-round victory over Syracuse.
But LSU did a good job of keeping the ball out of his hands after Mitchell’s big shot – going as far to push Law out of bounds when Texas A&M was inbounding the ball. The Aggies wound up not getting the ball past halfcourt on the final possession.
“I wasn’t fouled. It was incidental contact,” Law said. “I wouldn’t expect the referee to make that call in the NCAA tournament second round with a chance to go to the Sweet 16. I wouldn’t expect him to make that call to bail us out and I wouldn’t expect him to make that call if they were in that situation. With the game on the line, let the players make a play to win it. I got tripped up and was unable to make a play to win it.”
Law finished with 15 points on 5-for-16 shooting. Kavaliauskas added 12 for the Aggies.
The Aggies were in the second round of the tournament for only the third time, and their victory over Syracuse was their first in the NCAAs since their only trip to a regional semifinal in 1980.
Despite the loss, the Aggies clearly have a program on the rise under coach Billy Gillispie, the former Bill Self assistant who inherited a team that was winless in the Big 12 and won seven games overall two years ago.
“This will leave a sour taste in our mouths. But it doesn’t take away from the year we had,” Law said.
“A lot of people didn’t expect us to do what we did. We finished in fourth place and got 10 wins in the Big 12 and got our first Big 12 tournament victory. … We had an outstanding year, but unfortunately for us, we didn’t finish out the year the way we wanted to.”
LSU Head Coach
John Brady
On how his team won today’s contest despite shooting a low percentage from the field:
“I’ve always thought if you can rebound the ball, defend without fouling, and get to the foul line, then in spite of a poor field goal stat, you have a chance to win the game. I think that’s what happened today.”
On the last play of the game:
“The last play we ran was a play called ‘special’. I keep a list of all our sets in my pocket, and it is a play we haven’t ran in a game, but maybe one time. We did work on it in the practice the day before yesterday. We were in the timeout and [assistant coach] Butch Pierre said ‘What about special?’ I said go with it.”
On Darrel Mitchell‘s last shot:
“I felt confident it was going in. I call him the silent assassin because he doesn’t say much, but when its time to deliver, he can do that. He has hit seven or eight of those in his career. It was the ending to an excellent college basketball game. Our team was fortunate to win it, but deserved to win it.”
On Texas A&M’s defense on Glen Davis:
“They were just good defensively. They doubled us post to post. When Glen caught the ball, they were doubling down with the other post man. He had to negotiate two players every time he touched the ball.”
Darrel Mitchell
On the feeling after releasing the game winning shot:
“It’s really unexplainable. I saw it go in and I couldn’t get as emotional as I wanted to because we still had three seconds and the game wasn’t over, but it was great.”
On who was covering Darrel Mitchell on his last shot:
“It was the big guy number 44 (Antanas Kavaliauskas). Like coach said, the play is called special and the guys switched. I just wanted enough room to have a good look. I created some space and shot it.”
On dreaming of a moment like his last shot:
“It’s everybody’s dream to go to the sweet 16. It’s one goal of our season this year, and for me as a senior, this season is great.”
Glen Davis
On Darrel Mitchell‘s last shot:
“I knew if he got the ball he would nail it. He does it all the time. The play was for Darrel. I thought he was going to throw it to me for a second, but then he looked at the clock and I knew he was going to shoot it, and make it.”
On banging around in the middle with the big guys:
“It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. I missed some key shots, some shots I shouldn’t have missed, but it happens in a ball game.”
Texas A&M Head Coach
Billy Gillispie
On tough loss:
“It was a tough loss and a hard fought game. It was a very competitive game. I thought it was very fitting the way the game ended. We had so many close games all season long. We won a bunch of them in a row in that fashion.”
On his team’s accomplishments:
“I really don’t put an emphasis on setting goals. I have an everyday goal and that is to play the best basketball we can everyday. Setting goals only sets you up for failure. They played their hearts out and that’s all that you can ever ask.”
On moral victories:
“I am not much on moral victories and as you can tell our players are not much on moral victories. I will leave that for everyone else. I think it’s better for other people to reflect on what we did. Our guys show up and play hard everyday.”
Post Game Notes
#4 LSU vs. #12 Texas A&M
General Notes
This was the 22nd meeting between LSU and Texas A&M, with LSU holding a 13-9 advantage in the series.
LSU is now 25-8 on the season, and now moves on to play Duke next week in the Regional semifinals in Atlanta.
Texas A&M went 5:35 without a field goal to start the game.
LSU started the game with a 15-3 run, only to have Texas A&M answer with a 17-0 run to take a 20-15 lead in the first half.
LSU converted 18-of-23 free throws (78%), while Texas A&M shot 7-of-12 for 58%.
LSU Game Notes
LSU advanced to the Sweet 16 for only the 2nd time since 1993, with their last trip coming in 2000.
Darrell Mitchell converted the game-winning 3 pt. field goal eoyj 3.9 seconds left in the game.
Glen Davis scored 21 points and has scored in double figures in 37 consecutive games.
LSU becomes only the 3rd team this season to defeat Texas A&M while scoring under 60 points, joining Oklahoma and Kansas State.
Glen Davis led the Tigers in scoring with 21 points, while Darrell Mitchell added 16 points, including the game-winning field goal.
Texas A&M Game Notes
Texas A&M has now held its opponents under 60 points this season 19 times, including 10 of its last 11 games.
Texas A&M scored 16 points off of 13 LSU turnovers, and is only the 3rd time this season that the Aggies have lost when scoring 15 points off of opponents’ turnovers.
Acie Law led the Aggies in scoring with 15 points, while Antanas Kavaliauskas added 12.