BATON ROUGE — As LSU celebrates its 100th Anniversary of Men’s Basketball on Saturday, the Tigers gave a sold-out Pete Maravich Assembly Center packed with alumni a great show. The Tigers built a 23-point halftime lead and held off a second-half Arkansas run to win, 79-69.
LSU (17-4, 5-1 SEC), winners of five-straight SEC games, took over the lead in the SEC Western Division as Mississippi State lost to Ole Miss, 67-63. Florida and Kentucky, each 5-1 in the league, each play later today.
The Tigers saw a huge lead cut to five with less than four minutes to play. However, consecutive baskets by Tasmin Mitchell including a three-pointer from the top of the key sealed the win on the historic afternoon.
Mitchell, who stuggled offensively throughout the game, finished 4-of-13 from the field for 11 points — none bigger than his final five. He completed the double double with 10 rebounds.
Guard Bo Spencer led the Tigers with 21 points including 5-of-6 from beyond the arc. Center Chris Johnson added 18 points, 11 rebounds and seven blocked shots, while Marcus Thornton had 18 points and eight rebounds.
Arkansas fell to 13-6 overall and 1-5 in league play.
The Razorbacks overcame a dismal first-half shooting performance (8 of 30) by making 20-of-35 (57.6 percent) of their second-half shots.
Forward Michael Washington led Arkansas with 24 points on 11-of-21 shooting. Freshman guard Courtney Fortson added 17 points, nine assists, seven rebounds and three steals.
They were outrebounded by LSU, 45-32.
The Tigers made 4-of-8 first-half three-pointers, including all three of Spencer’s attempts, to lead by as many as 23 in the first 20 minutes.
After trailing 2-0, Thornton scored of the Tigers’ next seven points to grab a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
Arkansas cut the gap to 9-6 with 15:20 to play in the half, but LSU responded with an 16-2 run that included eight more from Thornton. LSU led 25-8 with 7:40 left before halftime.
The LSU lead hit 20 with a Johnson layup at the 3:50 mark, and ballooned to 23 1:10 later when Spencer nailed his third three-pointer of the half.
LSU outrebounded Arkansas, 27-14, in the half and led 41-21 at the break.
In the second half, the Razorbacks narrowed the gap to single digits with a 2-3 zone defense and full-court pressure, forcing LSU into turnovers and quick shots outside its offense.
Offensively, Arkansas shot better than 60 percent for most of the second half.
With 8:42 left, the 23-point LSU lead was down to nine, 55-46. Five minutes later, it was only five, 64-59, at the final media timeout.
On consecutive possessions, Mitchell hit a second-chance layup and a three-pointer from the top of the key to push the Tigers lead back to 10, 69-59, with 2:37 to play.
During an extended halftime, the much-anticipated All-Century team was announced. Earlier today, an Alumni Game was attended by nearly 4,000 fans. The White team defeated the Purple team, 91-76.
The All-Century announcement culminated a full weekend of activities to celebrate the Centennial weekend of the program, which played its first intercollegiate sanctioned game against outside competition on Jan. 30, 1909 against Dixon College in Covington.
The team, originally projected as a 15-man roster of the greatest LSU basketball players ever, was selected following both a vote of basketball fans on LSUsports.net and the voting by a select committee of former LSU players and Louisiana sports historians. The two groups’ votes each counted for 50 percent of the final total, and the voting for the final two positions resulted in a near three-player dead heat, which led the select committee to add a 16th position.
Read more about the All-Century team, and check back later for video from the event.
LSU HEAD COACH TRENT JOHNSON QUOTES
Opening statement …
“With all the festivities going on this weekend, I thought we did a really good job of finding a way to win the basketball game. Emotionally, our execution was pretty good. My concern going in, and I expressed this to them going into the game, was that we were going to have to settle down and play. Tip your hat to Arkansas. There was a reason they were able to beat Texas and Oklahoma at home. They have three talented freshmen and Coach (John) Pelphrey does an excellent job. We feel very fortunate we won. We didn’t handle the pressure well at times, but I want to tip my hat to them as opposed to what we didn’t do. We found a way to win and that’s the most important thing.”
On the key to a good start …
“I thought ball movement was critical. I thought we were really intense and ready to go. It is hard for me without looking at the tape, but I have to believe that there were some shots that didn’t go down for us in the second half and I thought the guys got a little tight, but you have to understand, when I say tight, they want to win so badly. With all the former players and coaches that were here, it weighed on them heavily. You can see by the way they started the game. Then they started to play back on their heels when Arkansas made a run. We have a tendency sometimes to get careless with the ball down the stretch in crucial periods of the game. I think the crucial part of the game was to find a way.
“As much as I hate to make excuses or say that we were in bad shape, we have a lot of guys that are playing in pain right now. Garrett Temple is playing in a lot of pain. Quintin Thornton, I would have loved to put him back in, but I just didn’t feel good.”
On LSU’s offense …
“Any guy on this basketball team that can shoot the ball well and shoot within the frame of what we are doing, I don’t say much to him. There are times when Bo, much like Marcus, will take a bad shot or two and then knock down a couple. They need to enjoy some part of this game. Offensively, I’ve been known to give guys freedom, especially during this time of the year. It’s February and March and everything is magnified. They need to enjoy it.”
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
Opening Statement…
“We’re glad we got the victory today. The second half was kind of sloppy, but we came back. They made their runs, but we stayed with them. That’s all that matters.”
On why LSU has offensive drought in second half…
“I wish I had an answer to that question. We’re trying to fix it. With every team we hope we can come out in the second half and play like we did in the first half, but the teams have their run. Arkansas had their run, but we were expecting it. We should have won by more points, but a victory is a victory.”
On playing against Arkansas’s zone…
“We figured Arkansas would come out and play zone because our offense was man to man. They caught on to that. We were slow to the rebound. We made them play a half court game. I guess they took that away from us and made us play zone. Marcus and Bo opened things up for us. That’s what we have to do when teams start getting a look. We have to start executing for both situations.”
On being first in the SEC West…
“Well we have to maintain it. We have to keep practicing and winning. Being first in the west is a great opportunity. It’s not over. This is the SEC. Any team can beat any team any given night.”
Opening Statement…
“This was a big win especially with everything going on this weekend. We wanted to send everyone happy and on a good note, and I think it was a good victory for us.”
On finding offensive rhythm…
“The shots are just starting to fall. I’m getting better looks. I had more confidence today for some reason. I’m not doing anything differently. They’re just falling right.”
Opening Statement…
“Like Tasmin (Mitchell) said, a win is a win. We had to play down and dirty to get it, but we played as a team and did the things we needed to do to win the game.”
Opening Statement…
“We came out and got us another win and tried to keep our streak going. Give credit to Arkansas. They came out and played us hard and tough. We had a lot going on this weekend, but we got our focus back and came back at the end.”
On offensive game…
“I had wide open shots, and Coach (Johnson) gave me the confidence to take the shots. I’m always working on my jump shots. They kept leaving me open, so I kept knocking them down.”
ARKANSAS HEAD COACH JOHN PELPHREY
Opening Statement…
“I think first of all, you have to give credit to LSU. They are a very good basketball team; they’re 17-4 and should probably be ranked here pretty soon. They are very well coached. I thought they were certainly much better than us in the first half tonight and we didn’t play very well and that’s a credit to them. There were a few plays there we were capable of making; we’re capable of making layups and capable of blocking out rebounding. In the second half we did those things better.
On LSU …
“They are a very good team; I really like their team. Tasmin Mitchell had a double-double, but had five huge points at the end when it mattered. (Marcus) Thornton is an explosive scorer; he gets to 30 (points) like it’s nothing.”
On the difference in the first and second halves …
“I told them they did get challenged. There’s a reason for not converting a lay-up and there is a reason for not blocking out and to me that reason is attitude. We can have a good enough attitude to convert those two things. I’m not telling anyone they have to get seven blocked shots in a game, although Chris Johnson obviously did that; he’s a great player with a lot of God-given ability. Our attitude was better (in the second half) and we played better. We didn’t give ourselves a chance (to win) because of our attitude. That’s an attitude of just being tougher and wanting it more; that attitude was lacking in the first half.”
ARKANSAS PLAYER QUOTES
G Courtney Fortson
On the game…
“They played 40 minutes hard and we only played 20 minutes hard so the results show on the scoreboard. The entire game LSU out played us.”
On what coach Pelphery said at half time…
“He told us we were laying down. That we were allowing LSU to do whatever they wanted.”
On where Arkansas will go from here…
“We need to refocus and keep practicing hard. We are anxious to get back to practice to prepare for the next opponent.”
On building from the second half…
“Of course we can build on this. I think it gave us a lot of confidence even though we didn’t win.”
G Rotnei Clarke
On the second half…
“We came and played with full intensity in the second half. We didn’t come out with the win and that’s what matters.”
On what lost the game…
“We were ready to play. Coach Pelphery said we just laid down for them. We let them do whatever LSU wanted and didn’t do what we were supposed to do in the first half.”