BATON ROUGE — For the LSU Tigers, it was just another night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. That’s the impression when one looks at the final score, a 73-66 win over the Ole Miss Rebels.
But that tells so little of a game in which LSU had to rally from an eight-point second half deficit at a time when it looked like no answer was coming.
In the end, the Tigers won for the 21st time in 25 games and ran its overall SEC leading record to 9-1. The Tigers lead the Western Division by three full games over Mississippi State as the Bulldogs lost at Auburn to fall to 6-4. Kentucky, Tennessee and South Carolina remain two games behind LSU in the overall race at 7-3 after winning today.
LSU, down five at the half as the Rebels were able to get the lead in the first half on 15 second chance points and LSU’s 5-of-11 first half free throw shooting. In the second half, the problems continued for LSU as Ole Miss traded buckets with LSU and would lead 62-54 with 9:13 to play on a Terrance Henry layup.
But the Rebels would score just four points the rest of the way. It would be over two minutes before the run started, but when Marcus Thornton hit a three at the 7:06 mark to make it 62-57 and then a steal by Garrett Temple that led to a Thornton bucket forced Ole Miss’ Andy Kennedy to call timeout, the crowd sensed a comeback.
Both teams missed shots on four combined possessions before Chris Johnson drained a jumper to cut the lead to just 62-61 with 4:52 to play and the crowd was on its feet in full throat.
Ole Miss missed again and would come down and foul Tasmin Mitchell who made both free throws to put LSU up for good at 63-62. The Rebels missed a three-pointer and at the other end Thornton hit a layup to make the lead 65-62 and eventually 67-62 with 2:15 to play as LSU scored 13 straight points before Murphy Holloway countered with a score to make it 67-64 with two minutes to play.
Johnson would score to make it 69-64 at the one minute mark and Ole Miss could not make up the difference in the final minute.
Thornton led LSU with 22 points, while Tasmin Mitchell followed up his 41-point night with 20 points and just missed a third straight double double with nine boards. Chris Johnson had 12 points and six blocks and Terry Martin in his first start of the year had 11. Temple’s return to the point guard spot was successful with nine assists.
Ole Miss (13-11, 4-6) was led by the 15 of David Huertas. Terrico White and Holloway had 13 each and Malcolm White added 10.
“Again, I thought we showed some mental toughness,” said Coach Trent Johnson. “I don’t want to take anything away from Ole Miss, but obviously we weren’t at our best. I thought we were struggling a little bit but when you lose your point guard it takes away your continuity and rhythm. It’s not to say anything about the guys that were out there playing, but you are so used to playing with your set five and I though Garrett did a good job Terry did a good job offensively.”
This was the first game this year LSU played without point guard Bo Spencer, who sprained his left ankle in the Mississippi State game Wednesday. His status is listed as day-to-day.
The Tigers travel to Fayetteville, Ark., on Wednesday to take on the Arkansas Razorbacks at 7 p.m. There is no television for that game.
LSU HEAD COACH TRENT JOHNSON QUOTES
Opening statement …
“Obviously we need a day off. Again, I thought we showed some mental toughness. I don’t want to take anything away from Ole Miss, but obviously we weren’t at our best. I thought we were struggling a little bit but when you lose your point guard it takes away your continuity and rhythm. It’s not to say anything about the guys that were out there playing, but you are so used to playing with your set five and I though Garrett did a good job Terry did a good job offensively.
“I thought the game was almost decided because of their energy and strength on the glass that really dominated us. That wasn’t because of lack of effort. I think we did everything we could; I think I did everything I could. We gave them a day off, but obviously fatigue showed. Ole Miss played well and they are going to be a handful. They have a bright future. They have some good players that are young and some players that are hurt that are going to be special.
“We got major contributions from our bench. I think Alex Farrer did a really good job defensively. I thought at times Chris Bass did really well spelling our perimeter players and Chris Johnson really stepped up down the stretch and made some plays when the clock was running down offensively. That’s a good win.”
On the key to coming back after Ole Miss missed seven straight shots …
“We just reached out. We got to shooters early in the first and second halves. We didn’t like our responses in timeouts. There was fatigue there. Down the stretch the kids reached down and we made a conscious effort to block out, but that is easier said than done. We are no longer hunting people. We are the hunted. This is all new for our basketball team so right now I think on the road and at home we responded, but also we responded to some teams that are at the bottom tier of our conference. We have to keep that in perspective.”
On the key to winning the game …
We defended and rebounded. Scoring is never going to be a problem for us, but today was one of the days we took care of the ball. We went in there at halftime and it was 25-23 on the glass. They were getting possession after possession so it was all about defending and rebounding.”
On how he would describe the past week …
“Two hard fought victories. Two hard fought victories.”
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
Forward Tasmin Mitchell
Opening statement…
“It was gut-check time for us, and we just prospered at the end. The team that wanted it the most in the end got it. We give credit to Ole Miss. They came out and played ball and did what they had to do, but we came out with the victory in the end.”
Guard Garrett Temple
Opening statement…
“We came off a very emotional win on the road against Mississippi State, and we didn’t want to have a let down. We played them good up there in Oxford, and this was a different team coming to Baton Rouge. We were down at the half, came back in the second half and just guarded them and pulled it out.”
On LSU’s tough defense down the stretch…
“That was a big thing. In the first half, we might have guarded well on the first possession, but they got a lot of offensive rebounds. They had 11 offensive rebounds and only had 13 total rebounds. In crunch time, we just wanted to guard and make sure we rebounded the ball.”
Guard Marcus Thornton
Opening statement…
“We knew Ole Miss was going to come in hungry after what we did to them in their house. We knew this was a different team from watching them on TV playing other teams in the conference. We knew they would give us their hardest shot, but we weathered the storm, and it just shows how much team chemistry we have and how much we have grown. We’re just putting it all together and trying to make it work.”
Guard Terry Martin
Opening statement…
“It shows how far we have come since past years. On this stretch right here, it’s going to be tough every night and every time we play somebody, so we just have to keep showing our maturity and how much we’ve grown from the past years and try to keep this up because it’s going to get tougher and tougher.”
OLE MISS HEAD COACH ANDY KENNEDY
On being dependent on a certain group of players to make plays…
“The biggest difference for us is that we are very dependent on a handful of guys to make plays. We try to get them the ball in positions where they have an opportunity to make plays. Unfortunately for us, LSU did a very good job of defending us in difficult opportunities. I thought we had the right guys taking the shots. As I look at our stat sheet, our two leading scores were Terrico (White) and David (Huertas). They made a majority of their shots.”
On LSU keeping Ole Miss off the offensive glass…
“We were trying to spread them some because we were having success off the bounce. When you spread, you take the stuff away from the basket. I thought Murphy’s (Holloway)was tremendous. He kept us within striking range down the stretch when we went cold from the perimeter. Murphy’s ability off the offensive glass gave us a chance.”
On tonight’s game being a trap game…
“The thing I was disappointed in, and we talked about this the whole week, they have two kids on their team that are player of the year candidates in Tasmin Mitchell and Marcus Thornton. Those are the kids that made the plays down the stretch. We would prefer that someone else would have to step up and make the plays, but that’s what great players do. I felt they were tremendous. Tasmin had six points in a row, which put them in striking range, and their other senior, Chris Johnson, made two huge plays, one from off the block and he stepped out, but really the back-breaker was the 18-footer.”