OXFORD, Miss. — The LSU Tigers put together an impressive rally from 22 points down in the final 10 minutes to press 16th-ranked Ole Miss to the limit before falling, 74-71, Saturday night to the Rebels at Tad Smith Coliseum.
In the process, the Tigers may have learned to come together as a team with the players they have left to play the remainder of the season.
Junior Marcus Thornton had his best game scoring since the season opener, scoring 25 points, including four treys that helped the comeback. Freshman Anthony Randolph had 18 points and 11 rebounds for his fourth double double of the year and Garrett Temple got his shooting touch back in a big way, hitting four treys in a 16-point effort.
Junior college transfer Quintin Thornton played 27 minutes with seven points and eight rebounds. LSU falls to 7-9 overall and 0-2 in league play. Ole Miss is 14-1 and 1-1 in the SEC.
Five Rebels were in double figures with Chris Warren and Eniel Polynice each scoring 15 points. Malcolm White off the bench had 12 while Dwayne Curtis scored 11 and Kenny Williams had 10 points and 12 rebounds.
The Tigers were unable to keep pace early with the Rebels who went on and early 13-point run to grab a 15-8 advantage. The lead jumped to double figures for the first time at 23-12 at the 10:32 mark and went to the dressing room up 43-29 on a long three-pointer by David Huertas at the halftime buzzer.
In the first half, LSU was 12-of-26 from the field (46.2 percent) while Ole Miss was 17-of-34. The Rebels had eight points off five LSU turnovers while the Rebels turned it over just once in the first 20 minutes.
The second half did not give LSU much chance to make a comeback early as they traded buckets with the Rebels for most of the first seven minutes before Ole Miss got the lead to 60-38 on a Curtis layup with 10:43 left, the biggest lead of the night for Ole Miss.
But the Tigers were still playing hard and began to find the goal with regularity. Randolph scored and Temple made a three-pointer at the 9:12 mark to cut the game to 60-45. Thornton made a bucket off an LSU offensive rebound and then scored again after making a defensive steal and the game was at 60-49 with 8:09 left.
The Rebels scored to push the lead back to 13, but LSU kept coming getting a free throw by Alex Farrer, then back-to-back three pointers by Thornton but the game to 62-56 with six minutes to play, completing an 18-2 Tiger run.
Ole Miss scored the next four points to take the advantage to 10, a margin that went back and forth until the Rebels held a 73-61 lead with 57 second to play.
But the Tigers didn’t quit, didn’t say nice run but it’s over. They had the crowd of 9,328 sweating more than they even expected and unsure if they could leave with a safe win or not.
Randolph got a tip-in to cut it to 10 with 44 seconds left. After an LSU timeout, Randolph got a steal, was fouled and made two free throws with 37 seconds left. The Tigers fouled and Warren missed the front end of a one-and-one and Thornton came down and made his third three of the game and the Tigers were down five, 73-68 with 24 seconds left as LSU called it final time out.
On the ensuing throw in, Temple came up with a steal and Thornton from a good four feet from beyond the arc launched again and cut the game to 73-71 with 24 seconds left. LSU had to foul with 13 seconds left and Warren made just one of two giving LSU a chance down three.
Thornton got the ball to the right of the line outside the arc, but under pressure didn’t have a good grip of the ball and his shot was short. Curtis was fouled with 0.9 left and amazingly missed both free throws. The rebound came to Temple but his three-quarter court heave was short and to the right and the Rebels escaped seemingly leaving the building Saturday night with fewer smiles than the Tigers did as the LSU players realized that this team could have success if they play like the team that played the last 10 minutes of the contest.
In the second half, LSU hit 16-of-35 shots 45.7 percent and 6-of-15 from the arc (40 percent). Where LSU struggled was usually one of its most reliable places, the free throw line, making just 7-of-15 attempts. LSU turned the ball over just three times in the half to nine for Ole Miss and LSU scored 17 points off those nine second half turnovers.
The Tigers return home for another Wednesday night conference game at 7 p.m. against the Auburn Tigers. Tickets are on sale at LSUSports.net for $14 for adults and $5 for youth (ages 3-12). The game will also mark the beginning of the 100th anniversary celebration of LSU basketball as voting will begin on the first two all-decade teams of LSU basketball, the 1940s and the 1950s.
LSU Head Coach John Brady
Postgame Quotes
On the second half:
“We got a little better in making open shots. In the first half, we couldn’t make open shots. We had been getting killed on the boards, but we rebounded better. We guarded Ole Miss pretty well in the second half. We just didn’t do enough things to win.”
On Ole Miss:
“We weren’t looking forward to coming here after Wednesday’s loss to Mississippi State. We knew that it would be a battle.”
On his team:
“We are not a deep ball club right now. I’m having to play six guys due to injuries and other circumstances. We haven’t shot the ball well. We will take what we did today and try to build on it.”
On Quinton Thornton:
“Quinton played very well for us tonight. He’s only had four practices under his belt, and he comes in here and plays 27 minutes for us. He made us better. Quinton and Anthony Randolph were huge for us tonight.”
On the rest of the season:
“We will try to build on how we played in the second half tonight. I’ll look at the lineup that we had on the floor at the end of the game and see if we can build something with that group. They executed better for us in the second half.”
Ole Miss Head Coach Andy Kennedy
Postgame Quotes
On the game:
“We played well in the first half, but self-destructed in the second half. I give LSU a lot of credit. We were in control of the game and they could have died and gone away, but they didn’t. They stepped up and made some shots and we turned the ball over too much.”
On the play of Malcolm White:
“Malcolm (White) was the MVP of this game. He stepped up and made some huge plays for us. He was active defensively and offensively. He made some big shots. It was a very big game for Malcolm.”
On turnovers in the second-half:
”It was a total lack of concentration. I felt we made some very foolish mistakes and LSU contributed to that with pressure. When we did make mistakes, they made us pay.”
On the comeback by LSU:
“Our guys began to play passively. Against Tennessee, we were in a similar situation and we began attacking similarly to how LSU attacked us tonight. I was hopeful at this point in the season we were past that, but obviously we are not.”