BATON ROUGE — Glen Davis scored 24 points and grabbed 10 rebounds as the ninth-ranked LSU men’s basketball knocked off No. 6-ranked Texas A&M, 64-52, to the delight of 12,053 screaming fans on Tuesday night at the Maravich Center.
“For our team to be able to beat a team as experienced and as well coached as Texas A&M without Darnell Lazare it took a great team effort,” LSU head coach John Brady said. “I really thought we were great defensively throughout the game. In the second half we held them to only 24 points in the second half. I thought it was a great team victory.”
Additionally, LSU (5-1) held Texas A&M (7-1) to 37-percent shooting (19 of 51), out-rebounded the Aggies by 11 and held their second-leading scorer (Acie Law IV) to 1-of-11 shooting in the victory.
Meanwhile, Davis scored eight points on four-consecutive jumpers in the first four minutes of the second half to stretch the Tigers’ advantage to eight points. Texas A&M got no closer than that margin for the final 15 minutes.
Despite playing with two fouls for nearly 12 minutes of the first half and four fouls for the final 5:28, Davis was a force on both ends of the floor.
LSU guard Tasmin Mitchell added 15 minutes — 11 in the first half — while Garrett Temple scored 11 and Dameon Mason had seven.
Early on, LSU had no answer for 6-9 forward Antanas Kavaliauskas, who had 14 first-half points on 6-of-8 shooting. Davis, Magnum Rolle, Chris Johnson and Mitchell each took turns guarding with little effect until the final possession of the half when he was foiled by a triple team.
In the second half, Kavaliauskas was only able to get off three shots, making two. He led the Aggies with 18 points. Forward Joseph Jones added 12 points, but struggled also with foul trouble throughout.
With Lazare nursing an ankle injury suffered against Tulane on Saturday, the Tigers needed a long and efficient outing from its post players.
LSU took the opening tip, and before the Aggies possessed the ball for the first time, 6-9 Aggies forward and leading scorer Joseph Jones left the game with two fouls in 47 seconds.
A pair of three-point shots by Temple brought the crowd to its feet and gave the Tigers a 9-6 lead.
Kavaliauskas scored consecutive baskets in the paint to start a 6-0 Aggies run as the Tigers went 4:21 without a field goal. Mitchell ended the run with a 16-foot jumper, yet LSU trailed 12-11 with 11:56 to play in the half.
After a pair of free throws by Kavaliauskas, LSU used a three-point play by Davis and a pair of run-away baskets off turnovers by Tack Minor and Mason to take an 18-14 lead.
Jones tipped-in a second-chance basket, however, he picked up his third foul against Davis and was again forced to the bench. Davis completed the three-point play and left the game for the first time with the Tigers leading 21-16 at the 8:54 mark.
With Davis on the bench for the next 3:25, LSU was outscored 8-2 including three-straight baskets by Kavaliauskas who used a three-inch height advantage over Mitchell to score in the lane.
Davis returned. And so did the Tigers’ offense.
After the 6-9 Baton Rouge native was fouled hard on a break-away by Aggies reserve forward Brian Davis, “Big Baby” missed both free throws. However, Mitchell earned a second-chance basket to pull within one of the Aggies, 26-25.
On the Tigers’ next possession, Brady was charged with a technical foul for arguing a no-call by the official.
With 4:11 to play in the half, Texas A&M forward Josh Carter made both free throws for the Aggies’ final points of the half.
The Tigers scored the final six points before the break, including a free throw by Temple and five points by Mitchell — the final two on free throws with 0.8 seconds on the clock. LSU led 31-28.
In the first half, Davis avoided his third foul, while three Aggies (Jones, Brian Davis and Marlon Pompey) could not.
Early in the second half, Davis couldn’t miss from the field.
The nimble 285-pounder hit four-straight fall-away jumpers with Aggie forwards in his face to single-handedly dominate the first four minutes of the second half and stretch the lead to 44-34.
“I never said, ‘Hey, I’m going to put it on my shoulders,'” Davis said about taking over the game to start the second half. “But that’s my role for this team – to deliver when deliverance is needed. I just saw the game. I didn’t rush anything. I just took my time, saw the basket and followed through. It’s just practice.”
Handcuffed by defensive stud Temple throughout the evening, Law, who averaged 15.0 points per game entering the evening, scored his first basket of the game with 13:55 to play to stop the Aggies’ bleeding momentarily.
A three-point play by Davis capped a 7-2 run that extended the LSU lead to 51-38 with 10:23 left in the game.
The Tigers led by as many as 15, 56-41, with less than seven minutes to play.
However, after Davis picked up his fourth personal foul 80 seconds later, the Aggies scored eight straight to cut the lead in half, 58-52 with less than three minutes left.
Texas A&M would get no closer, missing four-straight shots in the final two minutes while LSU hit all four of its free throws.
“They just whipped us,” Texas A&M head coach Billy Gillispie said. “They really came to compete, and we didn’t match their intensity. That usually doesn’t happen to us. We played like a deer in the headlights. They made us play like that. They play really good defense. … Congratulations to them on the win.”
LSU begins a difficult three-game road swing over a 10-day span when the Tigers travel to Houston’s Toyota Center to face Texas on Sunday at 7 p.m.
Then, LSU flies to the West coast for games at Oregon State (Dec. 17, 7 p.m.) and Washington (Dec. 20, 9:30 p.m.).
The next home event for the men’s basketball team will be on Dec. 23 when Louisiana Tech visits the Maravich Center. Tipoff will be at 3 p.m.
LSU HEAD COACH JOHN BRADY QUOTES
Opening statement…
“The first thing I want to say is this. I hope somebody writes this ? We had 2,300 students tonight and they only get 2,500 tickets. That is fantastic and that is what we need. They need to come out and support our team through the thick and thin. It was a good one tonight. I visited 10 sororities and fraternities before the season and I told each one of them that ?I don’t know of a successful college basketball program in the country that doesn’t have a supportive student body.’ We had one tonight and it was great.”
On tonight’s win…
“For our team to be able to beat a team as experienced and as well coached as Texas A&M without Darnell Lazare it took a great team effort. Everybody did what they needed to do. I really thought we were great defensively throughout the game. In the second half we held them to only 24 points in the second half. We out-rebounded them 35-24, and to get 11 rebounds more against an outstanding rebounding team is excellent. We got to the foul line 25 times and made 20 of them. I thought it was a great team victory.”
On what it took to get the victory tonight…
“I thought the rebounding and the defensive presence in the game was excellent for our team. Some people have picked A&M to win the Big 12 and they are No. 6 in the country. Our team showed a lot of toughness to get the victory tonight. I thought it would be a game of toughness and I think our team grew up tonight and showed the competitiveness that I really like to see in our guys”.
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
On Texas A&M …
“This is a great team. This team is going to go on and play bigger and better teams, and they’re going to be competing because they’re a great team.”
On looking up at the student section after the game …
“Fans are a part of the team also. They do a lot for us. They give us a lot of energy; they give us a lot of confidence out there, just to go out there and play. And we’re here, and they’re here. We’re all just one big family. I was just enjoying the moment and enjoying the atmosphere. You never get to enjoy this kind of stuff when you’re old. So I’m just soaking it all up and enjoying it.”
On if he decided to take over at the start of the second half …
“I never thought about it. I never said, ‘Hey, I’m going to put it on my shoulders.’ But that’s my role for this team – to deliver when deliverance is needed. I just saw the game. I didn’t rush anything. I just took my time, saw the basket and followed through. It’s just practice.”
TEXAS A&M HEAD COACH BILLY GILLISPIE
Opening Statement
“They just whipped us. They really came to compete, and we didn’t match their intensity. That usually doesn’t happen to us. We played like a deer in the headlights. They made us play like that. They play really good defense. We didn’t play with the pace that we needed. That’s what happens when you don’t play with patience. They out hustled us. They got all of the loose balls. They were a step ahead of us in everything that we did. Congratulations to them on the win.”
On his feeling at halftime …
“I didn’t feel good. We weren’t playing smart enough to beat a good team on their home court. You can say all you want by only being down by three, but when you keep on repeating the same mistakes over and over. We didn’t play any differently today than we did Saturday. We just faced a different opponent on the road.”
On guard Acie Law IV …
“He wasn’t aggressive enough. He’s got to be more aggressive, but that isn’t the first time that we have seen that this year. He has to change. He’s got to play better than that. He’s a much better player than that. You can’t determine if a guy plays well by looking at his shot line. You have to do much more as a senior leader. He looked like he was more scared than anybody on the court.”
On Garrett Temple‘s defense against Acie Law …
“He’s long. He’s a good defender. He was just quicker. Acie didn’t do a very good job of setting him up. We didn’t do a very good job of helping him. He’s not only a good defender, he’s a good player. He’s a very smart player. In my opinion, he’s the key to a very, very good team. I’m not saying he’s the best player on their team, but he’s a key to a very good team. He does things like you are supposed to do them.”
On LSU’s Glen Davis …
“We didn’t have an answer. He’s a good player. Who cares about points? You can dominate a game without scoring a lot points. When you are a real player, you demand a double team. You demand people to make adjustments how you play. It has nothing to do with your scores.”