BATON ROUGE — The confetti streamers flew from the catwalk of the Maravich Center for the first time since before Christmas Saturday evening and with good reason as the LSU Tigers played one of their best games of the season in holding the Ole Miss Rebels to 49 points in an LSU 69-49 win.
The Tigers, 10-16 and 3-9 in the SEC Western Division, won for the first time at home since Dec. 23 after six consecutive home losses, five in the SEC. Ole Miss, searching for resume wins to get a possible at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, is now 18-8 and 4-8 in the league. LSU is assured of entering the week tied for fifth in the West after Alabama and Auburn meet on Sunday with both teams at 3-8 and LSU is now one game out of third place in the division with four games remaining.
LSU travels to South Carolina on Wednesday before coming home for a Sunday 1 p.m. game against Georgia and a March 5 game at home against Alabama. The Tigers close the regular season on March 8 at Mississippi State.
LSU had two players with double doubles but it was Marcus Thornton, who got the start after missing Wednesday’s game with a hip flexor that scored 17 points including LSU’s first 10 as the Tigers got off to a 10-4 start on the Rebels. Anthony Randolph had his seventh double double of the season with 15 points and 11 rebounds with Chris Johnson scoring 12 points and 15 rebounds. Terry Martin added 11.
LSU had 12 blocks in the game with Johnson blocking five shots and Randolph four. LSU still failed to break 40 percent at home in the SEC, hitting 38.1 percent but hit 7-of-19 from the arc and a necessary 14-of-17 at the free throw line. Ole Miss was held to just 26.8 percent (19-of-71) and 5-of-22 from the arc.
The victory improved interim head coach Butch Pierre to 2-3 since he took over as the head coach of LSU. Both wins were SEC contests, with the other at Florida on Feb. 13.
Mississippi has lost seven of its last 10 games and dropped to 0-6 on the road in the SEC.
Ole Miss was led by David Huertas with nine points and 10 rebounds. Eniel Polynice grabbed 12 rebounds for Mississippi.
LSU put the game away with a 13-0 run midway through the second half. Randolph started it when he scored inside while being fouled for a three-point play. Thornton then hit a pair of free throws, followed by his third 3-pointer of the game. Randolph scored again inside and Martin hit his second 3-pointer of the game, giving LSU a 54-35 lead with about eight minutes to go.
LSU led by as much as 18 points in the opening half. Marcus Thornton had 12 points in the first half, and when Randolph converted a fast-break layup later in the period, LSU led 35-17. Ole Miss responded with a 6-0 run to close out the opening 20 minutes. Huertas made four foul shots and Kenny Williams scored inside, cutting LSU’s lead to 35-23 at halftime.
LSU INTERIM HEAD COACH BUTCH PIERRE
Opening statement…
“I think that was a great effort by a basketball team that played on the road against Arkansas and was embarrassed in their eyes. Tonight we fought back against a team that beat Mississippi State at home and came in fighting for an NCAA bid. For our team to respond like they did, to play from start to finish on both ends of the floor was a good sign. I thought our guys played remarkable tonight.”
On the leadership the team showed tonight…
“We had leadership out there tonight. It was the first time that I have seen our guys try to coach each other. When Ole Miss cut into our lead our guys ?bowed up,’ as I like to call it. We responded to the challenge and that is something we have been battling all year long. For us to be able to fight back as they cut the lead was great.”
On how the team played defensively tonight…
“On a defensive effort, Ole Miss averages 80 points a game, they have been out rebounding their opponents by six a game and four out of every ten rebounds they get are offensive. We did a great job around the hole. I told coach (Gayle) Hatch that we were physical around the goal. With the leadership of Garrett Temple on defense we did a great job on their point guard (Chris) Warren. He only had eight points and he is averaging about 17 points per game. We did a good job of defending the perimeter and their big guys inside.”
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
On his rebounding…
“I know I have been taking some bad shots in the last few games and I wasn’t making anything so I tried to find another way to score, such as tipping up rebounds or giving it to my teammates to score.”
On what helped make the team aggressive…
“I think it had something to do with practice yesterday. It was more competitive at practice. We rebounded a lot yesterday and I think that carried over to today.”
On keeping the lead when Ole Miss was making a comeback…
“Coach (Butch) Pierre just stayed positive. He told us to pick it up and that is what we did. Sometimes it’s just the simple things.”
On taking more shots…
“Pregame today I tried to get in early and get some shots in. It worked in my favor today and worked in the team’s favor.”
On the way he played tonight…
“It felt good pregame. The team came to me and said they needed me and that was all I needed to hear. I just tried to go out and play 100 percent”
On being able to hold defense after G Garret Temple was out…
“The last two days in practice, we have been working mostly on defense and were well prepared for this game. We knew what type of points (Ole Miss) could put up in a hurry so coach (Butch Pierre) got us ready for this game.”
OLE MISS HEAD COACH ANDY KENNEDY
On how he felt going into the game…
“We haven’t had any issues. Obviously, we’re not playing our best basketball. We had a tremendous outing against a good Mississippi State team. We put together a good 40 minutes on both ends. We come in here, and we realize that this is a talented LSU team going through tremendous adversity. We get on our heels initially; they make some shots, and our inability to score just spread like wildfire throughout. When I look at this stat sheet, we shoot 27 percent from the floor, and it wasn’t just one or two guys. It wasn’t an interior problem. It wasn’t a perimeter shooting problem. It wasn’t a penetration problem. It was everything, and it just snowballed on us. I thought to start the second half we made one push emotionally and had that thing down to six. DC (Dwayne Curtis) at point blank range, missed it, and next thing you know, it’s at nine, and we never made another serious challenge.”
On LSU’s length…
“It certainly didn’t surprise us as a staff, and we’ve played this team before. Obviously, Chris Johnson didn’t play so that gives you more length, but we’ve talked about it ad nauseam. We have to play with our strength. What is our strength? Our strength is trying to be physical inside, to put our big bodies on their skinny bodies to negate their length and ability to get to the ball. We just didn’t do it.”
On Garrett Temple‘s defense…
“We knew his (Garrett Temple) length would wreak havoc on Chris (Warren), so we were going to use basically the same mindset as we did with Mississippi State: let EP (Eniel Polynice) initiate the offense, but EP wasn’t the EP that we needed him to be. Certainly, he wasn’t the EP that was there Wednesday, so we didn’t have that option. We had to go with what we had.”
OLE MISS GUARD ENIEL POLYNICE
On a tough game today…
“We just have to keep fighting, and we just have to go to work and play harder.”
On LSU…
“They just came out and played harder than us, and they played with a lot more energy than us. We’ve just got to keep fighting; it’s not over yet.”