BATON ROUGE — Glen Davis scored 19 points and was named most valuable player of the three-day event to lead No. 17 LSU to a 60-45 victory over Samford Friday at the Maravich Assembly Center in the final game of the Hispanic College Fund Classic.
Davis, who scored 64 points in the Tigers’ three tournament victories, was selected the Most Valuable Player. Against the Bulldogs, Davis was 7-of-13 from the field and he had nine rebounds.
In a slow-paced game, Tasmin Mitchell and Dameon Mason joined Davis in double figures for the 10-3 Tigers. Mitchell had 13 points, while Mason finished with 11. Randall Gulina, who made four 3-pointers, led Samford (6-6) with 14 points. No other Bulldogs player scored more than nine points. Mitchell, Mason and Gulina were all three named to the all-tournament team for the three-night event.
The Tigers made five straight shots to start the second half and more than double their four-point halftime advantage. Mitchell had a pair of field goals and Garrett Temple hit a 3-pointer as LSU took a 37-28 lead with 14:33 left in the game.
Samford closed the deficit to 38-36 on back-to-back 3-pointers by Gulina and Travis Peterson.
The Tigers then went on the game deciding run. Baskets by Mason and Terry Martin started a string of nine consecutive LSU points. Davis made a pair of free throws before Mitchell knocked down a 3-pointer to put the Tigers ahead 47-36. The Bulldogs went scoreless for five minutes.
Samford dictated tempo in the first 20 minutes and prevented LSU from going off on a huge run. The Tigers took only 24 shots in the first half against the Bulldogs’ matchup-zone defense.
Samford stayed in the game and pulled within 23-21 on a 3-pointer by Gulina.
LSU, which made two baskets in the final eight minutes of the half, took a 25-21 lead into halftime when Mitchell hit a jumper with 3 seconds remaining.
“I think in the first half we allowed them to dictate the game with their offense. I think in the second half we sped the game up enough to bother them. I thought about going to a zone defense but I just thought we should gut it out and play man. It was a good game for us to win, because of how patient of a team they are. I think our team stayed positive, because Samford is a team that can frustrate you if you allow them to,” LSU Coach John Brady said.
In the opening game, Wright State’s DaShaun Wood and Stanford Speech of Mississippi Valley State went almost basket-for-basket for 40 minutes, but it was Wood with a short driving jumper with nine seconds left that gave the Raiders (7-6) their second straight win in the event with a 55-54 decision over MVSU. Wood finished with 30 points, while Speech had 23. Wood and Speech were both named to the all-tournament team.
LSU was a perfect 3-0 for the event, Samford finished 1-2 and MVSU 0-3.
LSU will have the week off before playing again on Jan. 6 against the University of Connecticut at 8 p.m. at the Maravich Center. The game will be nationally televised on ESPN and ESPN College Gameday will broadcast its Saturday pregame show live at the Maravich Center at 10 a.m. in an event that is free and open to the public. Tickets for the basketball game remain on sale online at www.LSUsports.net.
All-Tournament Team
Stanford Speech, MVSU
DaShaun Wood, Wright State
Randall Gulina, Samford
Tasmin Mitchell, LSU
Dameon Mason, LSU
MVP — Glen Davis, LSU
LSU HEAD COACH JOHN BRADY QUOTES
Opening statement…
“I knew before tonight’s game that it was going to be a possession-by-possession game and that it was going to go all 40 minutes. I thought as time went on we would be good enough athletically and defensively to slowly advance our lead, which is what we were able to do. I thought the only way Samford could possibly win the game was if they hit 12 or more three point shots and they only made seven. I liked our team’s discipline on defense and we won’t play anyone like that the rest of the year, except possibly Vanderbilt. However, Vanderbilt is not that patient in my opinion.”
“Samford is extremely well coached and they play within themselves as good as anybody in the country. The difficulty with playing like they do is once they get behind, they have a hard time getting back in the game. So it is very important that when you play them you keep a lead. Once we a got a 10-11 point lead I felt pretty confident we were going to win the game. I played the guys that I thought would be disciplined enough on defense that would not gamble too much. This game was not a game where we needed to make a lot of substitutions. I was pleased with our team’s defense and on offense we were able to make some plays and drive the ball to the basket against their match-up zone defense. I was proud our team all three days (of the tournament.) I thought we did some good things and won three games we were supposed to win and won them the right way.”
On the team being more patient tonight…
“I think in the first half we allowed them to dictate the game with their offense. I think in the second half we sped the game up enough to bother them. I thought about going to a zone defense but I just thought we should gut it out and play man. It was a good game for us to win, because of how patient of a team they are. I think our team stayed positive, because Samford is a team that can frustrate you if you allow them to.”
QUOTES FROM SAMFORD HEAD COACH JIMMY TILLETTE
“I thought we played better tonight. It was a step in the right direction. We definitely competed better than we did yesterday and I was pleased with the way that we started the game. LSU is a tough team and they are very hard to play your best against. Glen Davis is obviously a pro, as is Tasmin Mitchell and possibly Darnell Lazare.”
“They took us out of our rhythm a little bit, but I thought that we only really took two bad shots. I thought that Jerry Smith played well. He had some turnovers tonight, but on the other hand, sometimes guys aren’t always open. He’s struggling a little bit offensively, but I think that he’ll be fine.”
“After 30 minutes of the game, it was still close. This was our seventh-straight road game this month and we were hoping that we wouldn’t hit a wall in the second half. Despite that, we continued to play hard and I think that we did a pretty good job on the boards. We were a little fatigued and this was our third game against a top-15 ranked team.”
Game 5 Recap and quotes
BATON ROUGE (AP) ? Wright State picked up its second-straight win in the Hispanic College Funds Classic on Friday as it outlasted Mississippi Valley State, 55-54.
DaShaun Wood led the way for the Raiders notching game-highs of 30 points and 7 rebounds.
With time winding down and his team down 54-53, Wood drove through the lane to sink a jumper giving the Raiders the lead with only 8.4 seconds remaining in regulation.
The Delta Devils’ final attempt fell short at the buzzer as they fell to 3-9 on the season, including going winless during the tournament. The Raiders improve to 7-6 on the season and finished the tournament winning two out of its three contests.
The Delta Devils played strong defense throughout the contest forcing 18 turnovers. The two teams went back and fourth as there were 10 lead changes.
The Raiders will be back at home for their next contest as they take on IPFW on Jan. 2. The Delta Devils are on the road again for their next contest, as they travel to Pine Bluff, Ark. to take on the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Jan. 2.
WRIGHT STATE COACH BRAD BROWNELL QUOTES
Opening Statement…
“We found a way to win. I think we started the game off very well, but that was not geared to winning big. I think it was hard to get our guys to focus in the first half. When you start off with great shots and great defense you are off to a great star. Then you go through a little bit of a dry spill and turn the ball over and they make a couple of big shots, which allowed their guys to become more confident. All of a sudden you can just feel the intensity level that Mississippi Valley has picked up. In the last twenty minutes of the game they outplayed us completely. They were faster to the ball. Their size bothered us, their guards stepped up and their speed was just hard to control. Michael Clark was hard to guard in the second half. He really stepped up and defensively they were all harder to guard in the second half.”
On losing momentum in the second half…
“It hurt us a little bit, but we have enough guys that can step up and make plays. We needed positive shooters and players to make plays under the basket. Jordan Pleiman is so big in size, which makes him hard to score against. They concentrated on containing him, which put a lot of pressure on DaShaun Wood. Fortunately he had a good night and made it happen. Even with our troubles turning the ball over, we came back and had a victory.”