COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Anthony Randolph scored 20 points and pulled down 10 rebounds as LSU won two in a row for the first time since late November, beating South Carolina 62-55 on Wednesday night.
The Gamecocks (12-15, 4-9 Southeastern Conference) led 49-44 on Zam Fredrick’s 3-pointer with 7:33 left, but the Tigers (11-16, 4-9) rallied to take a 50-49 lead on Randolph’s follow with 5:05 left.
The teams traded the lead four times over the next two minutes before Garrett Temple’s jumper gave the Tigers the lead for good at 54-53 with 3:02 left.
South Carolina made only one of its eight field goals in the final three minutes, while LSU hit six free throws in the final 31 seconds. The Tigers made all 14 free throws in the game, while the Gamecocks made all seven of their foul shots.
The win marks the first time LSU has won two straight games since beating Nicholls State and Southern on Nov. 28 and 30.
Fredrick scored 21 points to lead the Gamecocks after not starting for the first time this year because of a three-game slump in which he had hit just seven of 32 shots, including one of 14 3-pointers.
South Carolina’s Devan Downey, the SEC’s leading scorer at 19.7 points a game, was held to a season-low six points on 2-of-9 shooting.
Thornton had 14 points while Chris Johnson added 13 points and 10 rebounds for the Tigers, who out rebounded the Gamecocks 44-28.
LSU overcame six turnovers in its first 11 possessions and rallied from eight points down to take a 29-26 halftime lead on Temple’s fall-away 3-pointer from the corner that just beat the buzzer.
The Tigers outscored the Gamecocks 9-4 to open the second half to take their biggest lead at 38-30 on Garrett Green’s follow with 15:54 to go. But South Carolina rallied, scoring eight straight to go up 44-40 with 10:06 remaining on Fredrick’s dunk.
LSU Head Coach Butch Pierre
“It’s big for us to have two wins in a row. Winning two out of three SEC road games is also big. I thought we came out sluggish. We were lucky to gain a lead at the half. In the second half, we got stops. There was one stretch where we scored eight out of our nine possessions. That helped us win.”
“Garrett Temple was big. He did a good job with Devan Downey. He’s a good defender. He can guard guys from 5’10” to 6’6”. He has good reach and played 40 minutes for us. He’s a coach-savvy player. He does a good job studying film.”
“We tried to control the tempo to keep them from running the floor and getting open 3’s. We moved into a half-court offense to slow things down and make plays.”
“We got risky by switching to a zone with two minutes left. That was the difference in the game.”
South Carolina Head Coach Dave Odom
“In the end their size got to us. There was a big disparity on the boards, 44-28. They had 13 offensive rebounds. It got to where they handled us inside. Garrett Temple when the clock was running down, he was a problem for us (with his) shooting.”
“When you look at the whole game, our team played well in the first half. We had a 5-0 lead it seemed like forever. I thought we could build on that lead but we couldn’t do it for whatever reason.”
“We actually tried to foul on the last play of the first half. We had a foul to give. Devan thought he fouled him but (it wasn’t called) and he hit the three-pointer.”
“In the second half, Zam Fredrick had really good plays there. I thought we corrected the zone. That was much more sound in the second half. Still when it got down to it, they got inside. Mike Holmes played well and even Sam Muldrow (played well) even though he hasn’t been playing much lately.”
“Unfortunately for us they didn’t miss any free throws. They were 14-for-14. We were 7-for-7 so there weren’t any missed in the game. You look after that, in the first half just about every other category other than rebounds, everything was dead even. You say how in the world did you stay in the game like that, well they turned the ball over 14 times, we turned the ball over four. Our ability to not turnover the ball is keeping us in the game because of our rebounding disparity.”
On last shot attempts of the game
“I thought they were all good shots. We had two against the zone. All of Zam’s shot I would want him to take for sure. Dwayne’s I thought was a little rushed and Dominique’s I thought was good for sure.”
Zam Frederick
“The way I played today had nothing to do with being on the bench. I knew I was in a slump. People go through slumps sometimes. I knew I had to go out there and do what I needed to do.”
“We lose the same way every time. We need to find something different so we can seal the deal.”
“I keep approaching the game the same. If I had all the answers, we wouldn’t be losing like this.”
“We don’t point fingers. We are not that kind of team.”
Dominique Archie
“This is really getting old. We’ve got to find it somehow, find a way to make plays, find a way to play defense. This year wasn’t supposed to be like this.”
“We’ve proven we can play with the elite teams of the SEC. Now we’ve just got to prove we can win against them.”
“We’re playing for the university. When Coach Odom leaves, USC is still going to be here. We’ve just got to make a name for ourselves.”
Devan Downey
(On losing close games)
“It’s getting very old, but I keep trying to stay positive and keep talking to finish this season out. You see what kind of man you are when things start to go bad so we need to stay positive and stay together.”
“We came into this season with a lot of hope, but it didn’t pan out like we wanted. But we thought we’d be in the talk or the top of the SEC, but we have to stay positive.”
(on worst scoring performance)
“I did my best, but it only shows that I am human. Everybody has games like this.”
Team Notes
LSU was the 25th team to post double-digit turnovers this season when it turned the ball over 14 times. USC has had 25 of 27 games with 5+ steals this season.
The Gamecocks extended their streak of hitting a three point basket to 195 straight and having at least one block in 112 consecutive.
Six of Carolina’s last seven games at home have been decided by 7 points or less including four that have been decided by 3 or less.
Carolina hit all seven free throw attempts against the Tigers. It marked the second time this season that they hit 100% from the free throw line. (Vanderbilt, 1/9/08)
The four turnovers by the Gamecocks were their lowest total this season and their lowest total since committing 4 against Mississippi State on March 9, 2006. The four are the least by the Gamecocks in a SEC Regular season contest. The previous low was 5 multiple times with the last time coming against Auburn on Jan. 31, 2007.
Individual Notes
Dominique Archie tied Marius Petravicius’ streak of 57 straight starts to begin a Gamecock career tonight (longest streak to start a career to date). Marius started 61 of the 62 games his first two years, not starting Game No. 26 his sophomore year vs. UT (but he did play 22 minutes in the game). To set the school record for career starts, he has a way to go. BJ McKie and Melvin Watson own that streak with 116 career starts each (not straight).
Archie hit double figures for the 16th time this year and 31st time in his career. He scored the first seven points of the second half for USC (19:35 ? 15:39).
Brandis Raley-Ross started in place of Zam Fredrick vs. LSU. It was Fredrick’s first non-start in 39 games (26 at USC, dating back to the Ga. Tech game at Wake Forest in 2005-06). It was Raley-Ross’ 22nd career start and his 10th start this season (first since UC-Irvine 12-28-07).
Sam Muldrow scored his first points since January 30, 2008 against Georgia.
Zam Fredrick scored in double figures for the 22nd time this season and the first time since scoring 15 at Georgia on Feb. 13, 2008. It was his 7th 20+ point game this season. His last 20+ point game was on Jan. 30, 2008 when he scored 23 against Georgia. Fredrick has 11 4+ assist games including 4 vs. LSU.
Mike Holmes has 12 6+ rebound games this season. He had a career-high 4 steals.
Devan Downey has 10 6+ assist games with a high of 11 vs. The Citadel (11-12-07). Downey scored only 6 points against the Tigers which is his lowest point total in a game this season. It marked the 2nd time this season that he did not score in double digits.
LSU
LSU went 14-14 from the free throw line which tied for the best free throw percentage ever against Carolina and it tied for the 4th most attempts where a team recorded 100% from the line. The most free throws attempted against Carolina where the opponent was perfect came on March 20, 1971 by Fordham where they went 22-22. The last team that went perfect from the free throw line attempting at least 14 tries was Florida on Jan. 15, 1997 when the Gators went 17-17.