BATON ROUGE — LSU nearly was pushed to the limit but the streaks remain unbroken for the Tigers in a rallying 68-56 win over Nicholls State University Wednesday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The Tigers won for the 71st straight time against a Louisiana school at the PMAC. It was the 11th consecutive win dating back to the final three games of a year ago, making it tied for the 10th longest streak in the 38 years of the Maravich Center.
There was also a milestone reached after LSU had put the game away as redshirt junior Tasmin Mitchell, in his 79th game as a Tiger, became the 37th player to score 1,000 career points. The 1,000th point came on an offensive put back by the Denham Springs product with 1:12 to go in the game that gave LSU a 66-55 advantage.
Mitchell led LSU with 19 points and had his 10th career double double with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Marcus Thornton and Bo Spencer had 17 each as all three played 36 minutes in the contest, the most they had been needed to play in the first eight games as LSU remained undefeated on the season at 8-0 going into Saturday afternoon’s contest at the Toyota Center in Houston against Texas A&M.
Anatoly Bose had 14 and Ryan Bathie 13 as Nicholls at 41.3 percent became the first team to shoot over 40 percent against LSU this season. LSU entered the game averaging just over 32 percent in field goal percentage defense, tops in the nation. LSU also entered the game the number one team in the country in rebound margin and did nothing to harm that, out rebounding the Colonels by 36-17, with a plus 13 in the second half.
But the game wasn’t salted away until late. The first half saw 10 lead changes and three ties as neither team could get control and LSU missed several opportunities to score on back-to-back possessions.
For the first time since the Jackson State game, the Tigers did not come out to grab the quick lead in the game, falling behind 5-3 at the first television timeout. But out of the timeout, Thornton was finally able to get a three pointer to go up 6-5. But Nicholls and its Princeton style offense answered right back to take a 7-6 advantage on a layup by Kellan Carter.
Nicholls movement caused LSU some problems early and the Tigers were not as sharp offensively. Spencer’s two-pointer with 13:40 to go in the first half put LSU up 8-7. But Ryan Bathie answered back to give the Colonels a 9-8 advantage. Temple answered with a short jumper at the 13 minute mark to give LSU a 10-9 advantage in the seesaw game. Temple got his second foul on the next possession and had to go to the bench for the rest of the half. Two free throws put the lead back to Nicholls favor at 11-10.
Bose hit his second trey of the half with 7:40 left to give Nicholls a 17-14 advantage before Nicholls came down to hit a 15-footer to make it 17-16. Bose on the very next possession cut open up top for a trey and the game was 20-16 Nicholls at the seven-minute mark of the first half.
Another three put Nicholls up 23-18 as the half neared the five minute mark and LSU turned the ball over on its next possession but the Colonels missed a three only to have LSU turn it over for the seventh time.
Tasmin Mitchell made one free throw but LSU kept the ball on a Quentin Thornton offensive rebound but LSU uncharacteristically was missing free throw and got no more points on the possession. Bathie hit another three and LSU was down 26-19 at the 2:30 mark. Spencer countered when the offense wasn’t’ moving with his own three to make it 26-22 with 2:30 to go in the half. LSU trailed by three, 30-27, at intermission.
LSU gave up two layups to open the second half to give Nicholls a 34-27 lead, equaling their biggest lead and forcing Coach Trent Johnson to take a time out. LSU went on a 6-0 run and got within one at 34-33 with 18:29 to play.
The Tigers took their first lead of the half on a Mitchell jumper as LSU started to feel him the ball on the low block. LSU took the lead and as part of an 8-0 run went up 41-36 with 13:07 to go. But the Colonels to tie the game and take a two point lead, 43-41 less than two minutes later.
LSU had the ability to answer, a lot of it from Mitchell and Thornton and although Nicholls would tie the game three more times in the next three minutes, they would never have the lead again as LSU outscored the Colonels, 19-7 over the last eight minutes.
“That was good,” Johnson said. “Good. Good. Good. It was just like I thought. Just like the doctor ordered. It was a close game. They tested us physically. They tested our patience. I thought there for a period in the first half we lost our poise for a little bit. We regrouped. That was a good win for us. It’s a good win anytime you can be put in a situation like that where the game is close from start to finish.”
LSU HEAD COACH TRENT JOHNSON QUOTES
Opening statement …
“That was good. Good. Good. Good. It was just like I thought. Just like the doctor ordered. It was a close game. They tested us physically, they tested our patience. I thought there for a period in the first half we lost our poise for a little bit. We regrouped. That was a good win for us. It’s a good win anytime you can be put in a situation like that where the game is close from start to finish.”
On if LSU made any adjustments to Nicholls State during the game …
“It’s interesting. It wasn’t as much of an adjustment as much as it was I thought we struggled with their physicality early on, which was surprising. When they got physical with us early on in the game, we stopped screening, we stopped playing together so to speak and guys started to run. They sped us up. At halftime the only adjustment we made was that we had to get back to execution and be strong, physical with a purpose, you can’t overreact when you foul a guy and just make good passes and just slow yourself down.
“For the most part, that is why this game was so good. As a coach, you can sit here and talk about it and tell them, ?This is going to happen.’ When they get out there, now it’s happening as opposed to being loose, free and easy. Anytime you play a team like that where their five and four shoot from the perimeter, it puts big kids like Chris (Johnson), Quintin (Thornton) and Storm (Warren) who are used to playing around the goal puts them defensively in a bad situation. Could we have gone to a zone? No, because the bottom line for us is that we have to become a better defensive team and we can’t push the panic button when we get in a crucial game. I think to answer your question; offensively it was more us than them, because we are going to see bigger, stronger and tougher kids and tougher teams. I thought they were really good and it didn’t surprise me at all. I knew going in what we were getting into.”
On the status of Bo Spencer …
“He will be fine, hopefully. If not, we will play Chris Bass and Terry (Martin). Bo is a tough kid, so we will see tomorrow.”
On why Chris Johnson didn’t get as many minutes as usual …
“The reason I didn’t play him tonight was because defensively, he has a tendency to break down at times. In a game like this where the possessions are so huge, you have to have your best defensive players on the floor. What I mean by that is the guys that don’t make a lot of mistakes. Chris (Johnson) has a tendency to make mistakes and break down defensively, so I didn’t feel comfortable there. Again, like I said earlier, Bo (Spencer) was good and I also wanted to try Terry (Martin) because we were struggling to score and they weren’t putting a lot of pressure on our one, so I thought I’d play Terry out there with Marcus (Thornton) and Garrett (Temple) and see if we could get the ball in the hole.”
On going over 1000 points…
“That is the least of my worries. It is a great achievement. I feel so honored to be a part of the elite greats, but I have a long way to go. I give all the props to Nicholls. They came out ready to play and they did great. They made it difficult for us, but we came out with a great win.”
On if the team got anxious at any point throughout the game …
“Yes, at some points during the game we did get anxious. We were down seven points in the first half. We were trying too hard to make something happen. We needed to stay poised and not try to be the superhero in one play. Marcus (Thornton) said that we had to slow down and play together.”
On if he would rather play a close game or a blowout …
“I like games like this. We like to play with adversity. Within our conference, we will have to win these close games. This type of game will train us to play those tough conference games. All praise goes to Nicholls. They played so well, and tried to take the game away from us. It did not happen.”
G Marcus Thornton
On how he thought the team played …
“I was happy about how our team stuck together through adversity. We knew times like this were going to come where we had to play really well to get the win. I am so glad we had that team togetherness we needed to win the game.”
On what they needed to do on offense …
“We needed to tone down our aggressiveness. On defense we have to be aggressive, but with the Princeton Offense that they ran, we had to make some adjustments and learn a little patience. Again, we stuck together as a team and pulled out a victory.”
On if the Texas A&M game last year aids as motivation …
“I still have flashbacks about that game. That was my first chance to experience a real collegiate game. They beat us bad. We have been preparing for this game all year. It is a totally different team this year. Coach Johnson will have us ready. We can’t wait to get on the court and play.”
NICHOLLS STATE HEAD COACH J.P. PIPER
On LSU’s comeback in the second half …
“We knew they (LSU) would try to pound it inside and they did it with just lethal precision in the second half. They were making layup after layup after layup and sinking point-blank shots. I’ve always known Tasmin Mitchell was a heck of a player and he showed it tonight. When the game was waning in the balance, they put the ball in his hands and he made play after play. On the other end we couldn’t execute a whole lot better. We were getting it to the rim and then the big kid (Johnson) just throws it out of there. I told them in our locker room that no one in our league has one of those, so if we play at this level in league play it’s a road win tonight.”
On the play of Fred Hunters …
“One of the things you do to counteract a Chris Johnson is the guy he’s guarding has to be able to knock down some open perimeter shots and Fred (Hunters) is a heck of a perimeter shooter but he was 0 for 5 tonight, but if just makes two of those then Chris Johnson can’t hang around the rim and beat the ball up like he did. Basically they dared Fred to shoot it and when he did he couldn’t make them. It’s a great lesson for Fred. Now he sees how important it is for him to be a good shooter on the perimeter and he wants to be. For a freshman to come into this environment and play the way he did, with the toughness he displayed, I’m pleased.”
On the play of Kellen Carter against Marcus Thornton …
“Kellen (Carter) did a tremendous job on a very, very good player. Marcus Thornton is capable of scoring 40 on a team like Nicholls; he’s just a better athlete than anyone else on the floor and he’s an unbelievably gifted scorer. I know he (Thornton) finished with 17, but it was a tough 17. Kellen (Carter) was in the passing lanes all night and disrupting Thornton’s rhythm, but that’s why he (Thornton) is an SEC player. He found ways to get buckets and help his team win. I have tremendous respect for what Coach Johnson is doing with his guys, but I’m even more excited for us to come in here and go toe to toe with them as long as we did. It was a tie game with 10 minutes left in the ball game, but we wore down a little bit and they made a few plays here and there and we couldn’t answer, but I’m excited about our team and I like where we’re at.”