BATON ROUGE – Bo Spencer connected for 13 of his game-high 22 points highlighted by a trio of three-pointers in the second half, but the LSU men’s basketball lost a hard-fought 73-63 decision to No. 22 Ole Miss Saturday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Tasmin Mitchell added 16 points and 11 rebounds for his seventh double-double of the season. The 16 points also allowed the Denham Springs product to eclipse 1,800 career points. He also distributed three assists and passed Johnny Jones (1980-84) for the No. 10 spot on LSU’s career list. Mitchell is the only player in LSU history to rank inside the program’s Top 10 in points, rebounds and assists.
Storm Warren tacked on 11 points, while Dennis Harris chipped in six points for the Tigers. It marked the 11th time this season that LSU’s (9-10, 0-5 SEC) big three of Mitchell, Spencer and Warren all reached double figures.
A Warren dunk evened the score at 56-56 with 8:08 left in the second half as the Tigers erased a six-point halftime deficit. Ole Miss (15-4, 3-2 SEC) fired back with an 8-2 spurt to go up 64-58 capped by a Chris Warren free throw at the 4:52 mark.
LSU got back to 64-60 on a Mitchell lay-up, but the Rebels tallied nine of the final 12 points aided by a quartet of free throws over the final 52 seconds to secure the 73-63 win.
Warren along with Terrance Henry and Eniel Polynice scored 14 points each to pace Ole Miss. Warren notched all 14 of his points in the second half for the Rebels.
With Ole Miss ahead 22-19 with 7:27 remaining in the first half, the Tigers reeled off 10 straight points over the next 2:36 fueled by Spencer. He connected for a three-pointer, a lay-up and a pair of free throws to spark LSU to a 29-22 advantage.
Ole Miss responded with 16 of the next 19 points over the final 4:51 of the stanza to take a 38-32 edge into halftime. Mitchell and Henry totaled 12 points apiece to lead their respective squads.
LSU embarks on a two-game division road swing Wednesday at Alabama. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. CST and the game will be televised by the SEC Network. Fans also can listen to the game on the LSU Sports Radio Network (New Country 100.7 FM The Tiger in Baton Rouge) and online at LSUsports.net in the Geaux Zone.
LSU HEAD COACH TRENT JOHNSON QUOTES
Opening statement …
“Obviously, Ole Miss is a very good basketball team. When you look at the kids that they lost or didn’t have around last year, (Chris) Warren and (Eniel) Polynice make a big difference. I thought that in the first half for the most part we had the tempo and speed of the game to our liking. Then our deficiencies reared their ugly head around the three minute mark where we had a couple of dropped balls and problems passing. We took a deep three and then they ran out on us, which is what good players do when they capitalize. Then, I thought we balanced the second half. There was a point there when we were down two, and we got a good steal and had a couple of opportunities that didn’t work out. This is frustration. We have to find a way to win a game. I don’t care who, when or where we play. We have to find a way to win the game.
“I thought Chris Beattie came off the bench and considering he hasn’t played, it’s interesting. All the things we work on in practice like shot fading and getting inside the three, Chris Beattie hasn’t played, but just comes in and does it. We will be off tomorrow and come back on Monday at 3 p.m. to get ready to go to Tuscaloosa and play Alabama. It’s no different in terms of how they are playing with Tasmin and Bo for the most part. They are doubling Tasmin. You put the ball on the floor, and we moved in the middle of zone to try to get some space. He had three guys surrounding him. Guys have to step up and make an open jump shot or two. It hurts defensively when we aren’t in the position to stop people. We have a physical disadvantage in terms of our speed and our quickness against good teams and good players. I don’t know how everyone else feels, but I have a major weakness because I’m probably as competitive as they get, and I’ve never been able to deal with it very well. It’s like dying to me. I don’t care who we play.”
On how he feels Terrico White helped Ole Miss …
“Terrico White is obviously a special player, but the thing I like is that looking at him from last year, now you have Warren and those guys back, he’s just filled and settled in. His experience with USA basketball really helped him. The tempo was to our liking and caused some problems in the zone. I think we had five turnovers at the half, and I think three came with 3:30 left on the clock. Good teams capitalize.”
On if Ole Miss changed their tempo …
“No because they were in the zone. They are just going to guard two or three guys on our team and shade off. When I say ‘tempo to a liking,’ they gave us opportunities to move the ball as opposed to certain teams who came out, sped us up and took certain guys out. Ole Miss sat back, shaded to Tasmin and Bo. Someone else needed to step up and make a play.”
LSU PLAYER POSTGAME QUOTES
On what Ole Miss did to him defensively …
“They zoned it up and packed it in on me. That’s going to happen so it’s up to other people to step up and make plays.”
On how frustrating the losing streak has been …
“It’s really frustrating. As a leader, I don’t wear my emotions on my sleeve; I don’t like to lose, but I have to suck it up. We just have to keep going and try to get a victory in every game.”
On LSU losing the momentum after tying the game in the second half …
“We just didn’t execute; we all might have taken some ill-advised shots or turned the ball over. Ole Miss did a nice job of capitalizing off our turnovers. We had a good rhythm, but it didn’t go for long. We’re not consistent when we have moments like we had in the second half.
On his individual performance …
“I had a pretty good game, but we still came out with a loss. I would have rather have played bad and win. Hopefully I can build off this game and use it as a stepping stone and stay in this rhythm.”
On guarding Chris Warren …
“We knew he was going to score eventually. I tried to keep a hand in his face most of the first half until his first three-pointer of the second half. We knew he was going to get on a little run, and he did. He knocked down two big three-pointers and made a layup at the end that was big for him. We knew he was going to get going. We just wanted to limit how long his run was going to be.”
MISSISSIPPI POSTGAME QUOTES
Head Coach Andy Kennedy
On struggling to put away LSU in the second half…
“I knew the second half was going to be a grind. People forget quickly that this is the defending SEC champion. They’re 0-4 (in SEC play), they have a tremendous amount of pride, and I knew it was going to be a difficult game.”
On the effort from his team today…
“We’ve got a certain standard that we talk about every day as to how we feel like we have to play in order to be successful. Number one on that is that we have to compete at a very high level, and I think for the most part, this team has done that. Everything else is correctable: missing free throws, bobbling balls, lack of execution at times… those things are correctable. We can go back to the gym and work on those the next three days. As long as we keep competing, this team will have a chance.”
On neutralizing Tasmin Mitchell in the second half…
“He starts at the three (position), so we started Terrico (White) on him, and it ended up backfiring because Terrico picked up the two quick fouls and he wasn’t able to play. Second half, we zoned them a lot. We tried to really shade him and attack the ball. I thought we were much more aggressive in the second half defensively.
On playing zone defense in the second half…
“I thought it bought us some time. They struggle with their perimeter shooting. Statistics say that going into the game, and we wanted to make sure we used that to our advantage. The fouls (in the first half) forced me to go to it (zone defense), and it was effective.”
Forward Terrance Henry
On how they were able to hold Tasmin Mitchell to four second-half points…
“Team defending. We knew coming in that he could go for 38, 40 (points) on any given night so we tried to team defend him, have two help side defenders every time he touched the ball to limit his touches and make him hit hard shots.”
On going 3-3 from behind the arc…
“It was bad last year. I was like 2-17 for the year. I’ve been in the gym the whole summer and all season working on my shooting, and I guess it’s paying off.”