BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s basketball team shot 73 percent from the field, including 7-of-9 treys in a 50-point second half as the Tigers broke open a tight game to win going away, 83-60, over McNeese State Monday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The half was a perfect send off for the Tigers into Southeastern Conference play that begins on Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. against Alabama at home in the Maravich Center.
The win was LSU’s 80th consecutive home win against Louisiana schools dating back to a Dec. 8, 1988 win over McNeese State. LSU was 6-0 this year against Louisiana schools.
Tasmin Mitchell led the Tigers with 19 points and his sixth double double of the season with 11 rebounds. Mitchell was 8-of-12 from the field. Bo Spencer hit four treys in an 18-point night and Aaron Dotson had all 10 of his points in the second half as the freshman recorded his third double figure scoring game. Storm Warren also was in double figures with 10, despite play8ing only 18 minutes with foul difficulties.
LSU was 19-of-26 from the field in the second half (73.1%) and 77.8 percent from the arc (7-of-9). For the game LSU shot 59.6 percent (31-of-52) and was 10-of-21 from the arc.
McNeese shot 38.6 percent from the field (22-of-57) and 6-of-16 from the arc, but hurt themselves severely at the free throw line, making just 10-of-28, including just 7-of-22 in the second 20 minutes.
McNeese closed with the final three points of the first half on a jumper by C. J. Collins to make LSU’s lead just two, 33-31, at the half. On its first possession of the half, Spencer and Mitchell missed shots but following a McNeese turnover when they had a chance to tie, Dotson hit a three to make it 36-31. Following a miss by McNeese, Warren got a bucket off a Spencer pass to make it 38-31.
McNeese would cut it to 38-35 three minutes in but Dotson hit a three, after a McNeese turnover, Dotson drove the lane and dunked the ball and Spencer hit a three to make it 46-35 LSU forcing a McNeese time out one minute later at the 16:16 mark. The Cowboys would get no closer than eight as LSU crisply ran its offense, dishing out a game total of 22 with just 13 turnovers, many of those turnovers after the game was well decided.
The Cowboys were led by C. J. Collins with 12 points as they fell to 5-9. McNeese’s two players averaging in double figures were held to single digits – Diego Kapelan with eight and Patrick Richard with nine.
LSU is 9-5 and now begins defense of it Southeastern Conference title on Saturday in a game to be televised on FSN.
LSU HEAD COACH TRENT JOHNSON QUOTES
Opening statement …
“Obviously, we needed to play well. We needed a win. We did that. The thing that was good for us is that we didn’t close the half like we should have, which is very similar to what happened against Utah, but we went in to the locker room at halftime, and I could look in their eyes, and they were ok. I told them we needed to make sure we started the first five minutes of the second half like we started the game. We executed very well when you look at 22 assists and 13 turnovers. When we started the second half, we came out with a play for Bo (Spencer). He came off it, and didn’t knock it down. We ran a play for Tasmin (Mitchell). He got the ball in the post, and he didn’t knock it down, but when we went to the other end, our defensive energy and confidence was very good. It was a good win for us.”
On if the team built the momentum it needed to go into SEC play…
“I thought from our standpoint, these guys needed a win and to play well. Alabama is a different basketball team. I’ve been on both ends of it going into league play. You haven’t won any games or you have won your share of games. I think the bottom line is that we won, which gives us confidence, but it gives them confidence because all the things we haven’t been doing well, we managed to fight through against a team that’s played pretty well against its last two opponents–Texas Tech and Rice. Whatever happened prior to here is out the window. Momentum I wouldn’t pay much attention to, but confidence I do. Look at Dennis (Harris’) play and Garrett (Green’s) play. Garrett probably played as good basketball as he has in the short time he has been here. Aaron (Dotson) had some energy, and he did a good job. Dennis Harris gave some energy. Bo and Tasmin were what you expect veterans to be like. If we can just go ahead and continue to build on that and continue to get better, I think we will have our chances.
“Our program, base, chemistry or whatever you want to call it, that’s not going anywhere. Check back in three years and if there are some slippages, then you can reevaluate it. I’m saying that based off the caliber of kids that are in that locker room. Whoever beats us from here on out, it is going to be because they are better … I like our group. We are who we are. We have to continue to climb, get better and go from there.”
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
On getting a win before SEC play starts…
“It was great to get a win before SEC play. This is where the big boys play at come Saturday. Its night in and night out. It’s going to be tough. We’re not going to be playing any more (teams like) McNeese and Southeastern – nothing like that. It’s SEC play from here on out. It’s time to buckle down.”
On if the second-half collapse against Utah motivated them to put away McNeese tonight…
“Yeah, you could say that. We just came out with a different intensity. But, you have to understand. That’s a different team we played (tonight). That’s not Utah. We just came out and said that we’re going to keep it up and try to sustain our intensity for 40 minutes.”
On preparing for SEC play…
“You see what’s going on in the SEC right now. We’ve got to play good – real good. We can’t afford to have that many bumps in the road. We have to keep it going. We have to come out with intensity. We have to come out and punch them in the mouth and finish it.”
On the team’s mindset entering SEC play…
“Our mindset is to come in and defend our title. We won it last year, and we’re going to try to come back this year and come out stronger and tougher. It’s not going to be easy.”
On his second half scoring burst…
“That was really important. It’s been really important for me to help these guys out the whole year. I think in a lot of the games we’ve lost, I haven’t been anywhere on the scoring charts to help these guys out. That burst in the second half was really important. It seemed like everyone got going after that. We started sharing the ball, so it was pretty good.”
On defending McNeese G Diego Kapelan…
“We contested all of his shots. He had to shoot a lot of fadeaways, which I don’t think he really wanted to do. Our defense on him really slowed their whole team down. We got a lot of fast breaks off his missed shots.”
MCNEESE STATE HEAD COACH DAVE SIMMONS
Opening Statement …
“LSU played well tonight. They were able to hit a couple of three-pointers and increase the point spread a little bit. We got to the line a lot, but hitting free throws is critical to good basketball, especially if you miss a jump shot to go to the line. It was a tough loss. We were coming off a great game against Texas Tech, and tonight I thought we came out a little bit flat. We work on free throws a lot in practice, but we have to execute them in the game.”
On what went wrong in the game …
“They got a few easy baskets, and we started to feel a little more pressure as we got behind. The Achilles’ heel for us tonight was at the free throw line. Also, LSU did a very good job of breaking our press and getting some easy looks. It was a great opportunity for us. I thought we had the right tools and personnel tonight, but we have to be able to hit free throws from the line. We wanted to come out and get to the line and put them in foul trouble, and that’s what we did; we just couldn’t hit those shots from the line when we needed to.”