BATON ROUGE — The No. 17 LSU men’s basketball team outscored Wright State, 35-17, over the final 20 minutes and won its first-night game in the Hispanic College Funds Classic Wednesday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Glen Davis matched his season high of 26 points with 12 rebounds as the Tigers improved to 8-3 and Wright State fell to 5-6.
In the opener of the tournament, Samford needed overtime to win its fourth straight game, 64-59, over Mississippi Valley State.
In Thursday night’s second session of round-robin play, Samford will take on Wright State at 5 p.m. with LSU and Mississippi Valley State to meet at 7:30 p.m.
Davis hit 10-of-13 field goals and for the first time hit more than one three pointer in a game, hitting his first three attempts before finishing 3-of-5 at the arc. Dameon Mason and Terry Martin each had 14 points for LSU, which had 19 assists to just eight turnovers with eight blocks. LSU hit 56 percent for the game from the field (28-of-50) and 9-of-19 (47.4 percent from the arc).
Wright State was led by the 17 points of DaShaun Wood. The Raiders shot 34.5 percent from the field (19-of-55) and 4-of-13 from the arc.
The Raiders didn’t turn the ball over in the first 20 minutes of play and managed to state close to the Tigers, training just 36-28 at the intermission. LSU came out smoking from the field, shooting over 70 percent for the first 12 minutes of the second half and used a 10-0 run to boost the margin to 60-34 with 11:25 to play and eventually led by as much as 28, 71-43, in the final two minutes.
“Just from sitting on the bench and getting a feel for our team, that was as good as I have felt since the Texas A&M game,” said LSU Coach John Brady. “We approached the game unselfishly and I think we you are unselfish on offense, you are better at getting balls in the basket. We had 19 assists and 28 field goals and that is pretty good. We had good player movement and good ball movement. We shot well for the most part and took care of the basketball. Our challenge now is to get some rest and to do it again (Thursday).”
Tickets for Thursday’s doubleheader are $11 and $5 for youth (3-12) and available online at www.LSUsports.net or at the upper concourse ticket windows of the Maravich Center beginning at 3:30 p.m. There is no television for the tournament but the LSU games are available on the LSU Sports Radio Network and online at www.LSUsports.net in the “Geaux Zone powered by USAgencies.”
LSU HEAD COACH JOHN BRADY QUOTES
Opening statement…
“Just from sitting on the bench and getting a feel for our team, that was as good as I have felt since the Texas A&M game. We approached the game unselfishly and I think when you are unselfish on offense you are better at getting balls in the basket. We had 19 assists and 28 field goals and that is pretty good. I was asked last game if I was concerned with our assist-to-turnover ratio and my response was ?Not at all.’ Tonight we had good player movement and good ball movement. We shot well for the most part and took care of the basketball. In the second half we held them to 17 points. Our only adjustment in the second half on defense was to switch everyone to DaShaun Wood. If he ever received a ball screen than we were going to double team him. We tried to double him and force him to get rid of the ball. It seemed to slow him down and after we got a pretty big lead it seemed he wasn’t as quick as he was early on in the game. I thought our team played well and our challenge now is to get some rest and to do it again tomorrow.”
On Dameon Mason‘s performance tonight…
“I thought Dameon played well and I was proud of him. I hope his performance tonight is an indication that, whether it is Dameon, Garrett (Temple) or Tasmin (Mitchell), one of our perimeter guys will step up and score some baskets. If anyone of those guys can step up and we continue to have the consistency of Terry Martin, than I think that will really help us offensively.”
On how the team was from a health standpoint…
“We have to get Darnell (Lazare) where he needs to be from a health standpoint. Magnum (Rolle) had some flu symptoms tonight, but he still played solid when he was in the game. Garrett (Temple) has a hip-flexor that has bothered him, which is why he played less minutes.”
WRIGHT STATE HEAD COACH BRAD BROWNELL
“They really shot the ball exceptionally well, especially early on. We did everything we wanted to do defensively at the beginning of the game. Glen Davis comes out and hits three threes. He only had a couple coming into the game, and he makes three. Obviously, we have to pack it back a bit because we are undersized at a lot of spots. Despite that, we kept telling the guys throughout the first half that you were doing fine. We have to keep competing. We did a good job. I thought we executed our offense pretty well. We really took care of the ball. We had no turnovers in the first half, which is outstanding. We played some pretty good basketball. They just made a lot of tough shots and outside shots. Most of them were contested. That is why they are a very good team.”
“In the second half we didn’t play as well. We let them get off to a good start. They made a couple of tough shots late in the shot clock that were daggers. Our guys kind of got their heads down. We just didn’t rally like we needed to. We missed a couple of shots around the rim that we probably should have finished. The snowball comes and all of a sudden they are up 15, and the game becomes easy for them. Terry Martin came in and showed what he can do. They have a nice team, but this game should have been much closer.”
Game 1 Recap and Quotes
BATON ROUGE — Senior guard Randall Giulani scored a game-high 26 points as Samford rallied in overtime to post a 64-59 victory over Mississippi Valley State in the opening game of the Hispanic College Funds Classic at the Maravich Center.
Samford (6-4) will square off against Wright State on Thursday at 5 p.m. in day two of the three-day competition.
With the loss, Mississippi Valley State (3-7) had its two-game winning streak snapped. The Delta Devils are scheduled to face LSU on Thursday.
Samford guard Jerry Smith added 19 points — all of which came in the second half — including the team’s final five points of the game. MVSU was led in scoring by Stanford Speech with 14 points.
The Delta Devils overcame a nine-point deficit late in the contest to knot the score at 51-51. MVSU missed a pair of possible game-winning shots, and the Bulldogs finally picked up the rebound with two seconds remaining to send the game into overtime.
Samford rallied for 13 points in the extra period, using six points from Gulina, five from Smith and two from Travis Peterson. The Bulldogs’ defense only allowed Mississippi Valley State to score eight points in overtime.
SAMFORD HEAD COACH JIMMY TILLETTE
“I kind of expected us to start off slowly on offense, but even in the second half, I don’t think that we ever got into a groove on that end of the floor. We missed a ton of wide open shots throughout the game and I think that we struggled defensively. We’ll need to play a lot better than this against Wright State tomorrow.”
“Randall (Gulina) played well offensively, but he struggled on the defensive side of the ball. I think that the time off for Christmas hurt us with our offensive rhythm, just because it is so precision-based. We could never seem to get into our sets very smoothly and I also have to give Mississippi Valley State some credit. They played hard.”
“Jerry (Smith) played well for us in the second half and I think he did a good job of looking for his shot. He also made some clutch free throws for us down the stretch, but I still think that we turned the ball over way to much in the game.”
MISSISSIPPI VALLEY STATE HEAD COACH JAMES GREEN QUOTES
On how his team improved in the second half…
“I think the biggest thing we did is we tried to press more and we stayed committed to it no matter what happened. Our energy level went up and we were able to knock down some big shots. Stanford (Speech) did a good job of getting us going in the second half. Also, we were able to take the ball down inside against their post people.”
On what specifically Samford did well against them…
“You have to give them a lot of credit because they just stayed with their game plan. I thought we did cause some problems for them with our press, but they still made the baskets when they needed to make them. Our best opportunity was when we got the great looks at the basket at the end of regulation, but we couldn’t capitalize. I am proud of the way our team played and we have no reason to hang our heads down on this game. Our team should be proud of the way they played because they gave great effort.”