ATLANTA — The LSU Tigers could never get control of the game from the South Carolina Gamecocks and the Tigers fell to the Gamecocks, 77-73, in the first game of the 2008 Southeastern Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament at the Georgia Dome.
The loss finished LSU at 13-18 overall, after a 6-10 record in Southeastern Conference play. LSU interim Coach Butch Pierre, who took over for the fired John Brady on Feb. 8, finished the rest of the season for LSU at 5-5.
South Carolina, with retiring coach Dave Odom still alive to coach a Friday quarterfinal game against Tennessee, is now 14-17 overall.
Anthony Randolph had 22 points and eight boards, but six turnovers for LSU with Marcus Thornton getting 17 points and Chris Johnson his sixth double double of 13 points and 14 rebounds. LSU also had Terry Martin with 11 points and Alex Farrer 10. Five players from each team ended up in double figures with Mike Holmes and Evaldas Baniulis leading South Carolina with 16 each, with Domingue Archie 15 and Devan Downey and Zam Fredrick 12 each.
The Tigers dominated many of the statistics of the game, shooting 50 percent (27-of-54) and 8-of-24 (33.3%) from the arc, to the Gamecocks 46.2 percent (30-of-65), including 9-of-27 from the arc. LSU out rebounded South Carolina, 42-27, but LSU had 19 turnovers and South Carolina had a 26-3 advantage in points off turnovers.
South Carolina broke open a tight game with a 19-5 run in the second half and hit six three pointers after trailing 43-41 early in the second half.
LSU led 54-52 before South Carolina took control, scoring 19 of 24 points for a 71-59 lead with 3:05 left. Baniulis had two 3-pointers during the run. The Tigers cut the deficit to 74-70 on Johnson’s put-back with 39 seconds left. Following two free throws by South Carolina’s Downey, LSU’s Farrer hit a 3-pointer with 19 seconds left to make it 76-73.
South Carolina’s DeWayne Day missed two free throws with 18.9 seconds left, giving LSU a chance. Marcus Thornton missed a 3 and the Tigers grabbed the rebound, but South Carolina’s Frederick stole it away with 3.1 seconds left to preserve the win.
Baniulis had four 3-pointers overall, including three in the second half.
The Gamecocks built a 31-21 first-half lead against LSU. Day hit two 3-pointers in the opening period for the Gamecocks, who settled for a 37-34 halftime advantage.
POSTGAME
COACH BUTCH PIERRE
THE MODERATOR: We’ll ask Coach Pierre for some overall thoughts on the game and then we’ll take your questions just for the two student athletes and then we’ll excuse them back to the locker room and then we’ll finish up with Coach.
COACH PIERRE: I think South Carolina and Coach Odom, they did a good job. They prepared for us. The team hit some timely baskets and made some plays when they needed to at certain points of the ballgame.
You know, I’m just proud of our guys, the way we fought through a time of adversity and put ourselves in a position where we had an opportunity to not only play in this game but have an opportunity to win it. You know, they made some shots down the stretch and built a lead, and we were able to come back. The game went back and forward.
I thought one of the biggest key statistics of the game was ‑‑ and we hadn’t been doing this, is we had 19 turnovers, and those 19 turnovers obviously were some easy transition baskets for South Carolina.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll take questions for either of the student athletes.
Q. How was South Carolina able to dictate the tempo? It looked like they had the game at their speed, especially in the second half.
ANTHONY RANDOLPH: The Coach and the team just had a great game plan and they followed it to a tee. They just did a good job this game of getting us out of our stuff.
MARCUS THORNTON: We had played them probably no longer than two weeks ago, so they kind of had a good general idea of what we was going to do, and they just executed on defense, and we just missed a couple baskets, easy shots, that gave them easy buckets on their side.
Q. Obviously you came in a very hot team. You’ve had a tough year, but how disappointing is this because you were planning to make some noise because of the way you played heading into this tournament.
ANTHONY RANDOLPH: I mean, it’s disappointing any time you lose. I mean, all the stuff that we did before the SEC Tournament, it doesn’t matter. It’s irrelevant. It’s zero‑zero when you come in, and that showed today. South Carolina just played a great game.
MARCUS THORNTON: You know, any game, you play outside with the kids and you lose and it hurts. We have to rebuild, come back next year and rebuild on the things that we had this year and just get better and get better as a unit.
Q. Anthony, will your decision to stay here or go pro have anything to do with who the next coach may be at LSU? Will that affect your decision?
ANTHONY RANDOLPH: Like I said, Coach Pierre has been a great mentor to me on and off the court. Yeah, it’s going to affect my decision. But like I said earlier, I love LSU, I love playing with my team and my teammates, and as you can see I’m having fun out there. I love LSU. It’s not just about one person.
Q. Coach mentioned the turnovers. What did South Carolina do, if anything, differently, or why were they able to force so many turnovers?
ANTHONY RANDOLPH: They just played great defense. They doubled down a lot when they threw the ball in the post. They played passing lanes very well, and they just got into our wing players. They just played great defense.
MARCUS THORNTON: I don’t think they did anything too different. At certain points of the game I just figured we ain’t executing like we usually do. That took a toll in the game in the final minute or whatever, whatever time they had left.
Q. For Marcus, how good a look did you get on that final three and just your thoughts on that final shot?
MARCUS THORNTON: I felt like I had enough space to get it off or whatever, and I thought ‑‑ like I shoot every shot, I thought it had a chance of going in. Obviously it didn’t. You know, it just went off by a little bit. But we had another chance, and I think Chris got fouled but they didn’t call it, so whatever happened, happened.
Q. You’re coming here on a great streak of scoring. Did South Carolina do anything different to you than they did the last game?
MARCUS THORNTON: Well, towards the end of the game they tried to go box and one, you know, keep a man in my face or whatever. They was able to free up open players on my team, and that’s all it was, just a box and one.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll excuse you. You can return to the locker room. Thank you. We will continue on with questions for the Coach.
Q. The same thing I asked them about the turnovers, did South Carolina do anything different or better, or you talked about they play a lot of kind of tricky defenses. What did they do to get you guys out of rhythm?
COACH PIERRE: I think he made some pretty good adjustments. They made some 1‑3‑1 zone and they normally don’t do that. But we were prepared for it, and we got some good looks. Any time we shoot 50 percent from the floor and 78 from the line and make some threes, our defense is usually good enough to not only be in games, to win the game.
I thought on the offensive end, they made some timely baskets, they got some open looks that they didn’t get the first time, and also, I see where we only blocked one shot. And I think the one blocked shot was because last time we played them, they forced it inside and their big men inside challenged Chris and Anthony, whereas tonight they kind of slid them away from the goal, and when they slid them away from the goal, they hit those 14‑foot, 15‑foot jump shots. Holmes hit some timely baskets throughout the game.
Q. What are you feeling right now? Do you feel that you’re at the end of something, or do you really know how to feel at this point?
COACH PIERRE: Well, you know, I feel for our players because they were very excited, looking forward to playing in this tournament. You know, I tried to tell them, and I did tell them, that the score is tied at zero‑zero when it starts in the win‑loss column, and you’ve got to go out there and win the game because it’s just not going to happen. So I feel for them.
But like I told them in the locker room when the game was over, they came a long way from a 1 and 7 team to be in a position to have some momentum late in the season and in the Southeast Conference, and to win your last five out of six games and be able to be in this position, this is the only reason that you have a chance at beating ‑‑ winning the game.
We had our chances. The game was manageable. Just in the second half, in a stretch during that gain, made some big baskets and kind of separated and we didn’t respond. But we still had a chance in the end to tie the ballgame.
Q. Can you talk about Anthony’s progression this season, and at this point do you think it would be beneficial for him to come back next year and stay with LSU?
COACH PIERRE: Well, Anthony made some progress. I know we talked about the other team. He kind of rushed it early on as far as a couple of traveling calls. He had six turnovers and that’s uncharacteristic for him, and Chris.
But as far as him coming back to LSU next year, I spent a lot of time with him and his family and his high school coach, and that decision is based upon Anthony Randolph and his family. I guess we’ll all kind of sit down and discuss where he is. It’s like anything else, he needs to continue to grow. He’s got a lot of room to improve both mentally and physically, and I guess it’s going to determine on exactly what his family wants to do.
My gut feeling, I think he will be back. But that evaluation process, I guess, will be over the next couple of months.
Q. How many times in your coaching career have you been at the end of a season and not really known what you’re going to be doing next season?
COACH PIERRE: Never, because I’ll be coaching somewhere (laughing). You know, one of the things about Butch Pierre is that I’m a very confident person, confident coach, now I’m a confident head coach in terms of recruiting, also. You know, I’m just going to get back home with my wife and my family and talk about things and see what happens.
Q. You took over a tough situation ten games ago, made a lot of great strides. Overall how did you feel about your head coaching job, and do you feel like you deserved to be back?
COACH PIERRE: Well, you know, like I said before, I thank LSU and the administration for giving me this opportunity. I loved it, I enjoyed it. Even though it was a time of adversity working there, you never want to see that happen to anybody, Coach Brady, a friend of mine who I’ve been working with for 11 years.
Under the circumstances it was tough. A lot of times when guys become a head coach it’s an easy transition for them because it’s usually at a mid‑major school and all the lights and TV is not showing on you, so you’ve got a lot of chances for error or to make mistakes. I didn’t have a lot of opportunity to make mistakes. I thought I did well, and the kids did extremely well in adapting and being coachable. We made progress, and that’s what coaching is all about, to help these young men become model citizens. In the meantime you have to win games, particularly in the Southeast Conference and LSU because that’s the highest level in college I can’t tell sports.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much.
POST GAME NOTES
2008 SEC men’s Basketball Tournament
FINAL SCORE: South Carolina 77, LSU 73
Game/Tournament Notes
Key run: trailing 57-56 with 7:15 remaining, South Carolina went on a 15-2 run for a 71-59 lead at the 3:03 mark.
The Fighting Tigers made a spirited comeback, coming to within 76-73, and had a chance to tie in the closing seconds but Marcus Thornton missed a three-pointer. LSU’s Chris Johnson grabbed the rebound, but USC’s Zam Fredrick stole the ball from Johnson, was fouled, and added a free throw with three seconds left to make the final score 77-73.
Key stat: South Carolina capitalized points off turnovers, 26-3. LSU committed 19 turnovers while South Carolina had only eight miscues. South Carolina is the stingiest turnover team in the SEC, averaging just 10.7 giveaways per game.
South Carolina advances to the quarterfinals on Friday, March 14, at 1 p.m. vs. Tennessee, the SEC regular season champion. The Volunteers defeated the Gamecocks twice during the season, 80-56 in Columbia on Jan. 12 and 89-56 in Knoxville on March 9.
LSU Notes
LSU is 13-18 overall, losing the final two games of the season.
Interim Coach Butch Pierre went 5-5 during his term as the Tiger head coach, all against SEC opponents.
LSU is 42-48 in SEC Tournament history, including 21-29 since the renewal in 1979.
LSU is 7-9 in games played in the Georgia Dome, including 5-9 in SEC Tournament action.
LSU shot 50 percent from the field. This is the first game this season that LSU lost when making at least half their shots. The Tigers went 6-1 this season when shooting at least 50 percent from the field.
LSU dominated the rebounding, 42-27. The margin of +15 was the Tigers’ best against a conference opponent this season.
The Tigers had balanced scoring with five players with double figures, the second time they accomplished that this season. Ironically, LSU also lost its other game with five double-figure scorers, an 87-84 overtime setback against Arizona State in the Maui Invitational on Nov. 21.
Freshman Anthony Randolph paced the Tigers with 22 points. It is his ninth 20-point game of the season.
Center Chris Johnson had 13 points and 14 rebounds, his fourth double-double of the season.
South Carolina Notes
South Carolina is 14-17 overall.
South Carolina now has an all-time record of 16-16 in the SEC Tournament.
South Carolina had a balanced offense, with five players scoring in double figures. Five Gamecocks also hit double figures in an 85-82 win over College of Charleston on Dec. 22.
Devan Downey had an excellent floor game for USC. Downey tied his career high for assists with 11, the second time this season he has reached that mark. The 5-9 Downey also paced the Gamecocks in rebounds with seven boards.
Sophomore Dominique Archie made his 61st consecutive start, every game over the last two seasons.