BATON ROUGE – Another solid effort and tempo control put LSU in position for its first conference victory Saturday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center only to have Mississippi State’s Phil Turner dash the Tigers hopes with a three-pointer with 5.8 seconds to play that was the difference in MSU’s 60-59 win over LSU.
The Tigers fell to 9-17 on the year and 0-12 in the league while State kept alive its chances for an NCAA Tournament berth by running its record to 19-8 and 7-5 in the league.
The Tigers hung close most of the game but trailed by six at 55-49 with 3:31 to play. Tasmin Mitchell and Storm Warren made layups to cut the lead to 55-53 but State came right down by Ravern Johnson hit a jumper with 92 seconds left to make it 57-53 in favor of the Bulldogs.
On the ensuing possession, Warren missed a dunk, Mitchell rebounded and was fouled. On the ensuing inbounds, Bo Spencer hit his only three of the game to cut it to 57-56 with 1:18 to play.
After an LSU foul and another MSU possession, Chris Bass stole the ball from Dee Bost and LSU called its final time out with 44 second to play.
LSU got a shot from Spencer with 25 seconds that missed which Warren rebounded. Warren then missed and Spencer got the rebound and threw it to Tasmin Mitchell who swished his fourth three of the game to give LSU a 59-57 lead. State went straight on offense and passed the ball around to an open Turner for what would be the game-winning trey. Spencer would miss a half-court three for LSU’s last chance.
Mitchell moved into fifth all-time in scoring at LSU past Bob Pettit, scoring 25 points to go to 1,926 career points and his nine rebounds put him over 900 career boards. Mitchell hit 9-of-20 shots, including 4-of-5 treys with four assists and two blocks in 40 minutes. Warren had 14 points and Dennis Harris 10 for the Tigers who out rebounded Mississippi State, 36-33, with 15 assists and just nine turnovers.
State got 16 from Johnson and 14 from Jarvis Varnado who had seven blocked shots. State shot 44 percent from the game but 14-of-28 in the second half with six treys. State becomes the seventh team in the last eight games to shoot 50 percent or better against LSU in the second half.
The Tigers now play at home Wednesday night at 7 p.m. at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center against Arkansas. Tickets are on sale online at www.LSUsports.net.
LSU vs. Mississippi State
February. 20, 2010
LSU HEAD COACH TRENT JOHNSON QUOTES
Opening statement …
“Well, Mississippi State made some tough three-point shots and made the plays they needed to make to win the game. I thought we did a good job of executing. Obviously, their game plan on us defensively was to sag off our posts. I thought our guys such as Dennis (Harris) and Storm (Warren) struggled to take good uncontested shots and be aggressive in the first half. In the second half, I thought they both did a good job, Storm especially, of knowing they were going to sag off and jumping up and shooting in rhythm. I thought Dennis gave us some lift in the first half at times. We came out a couple of timeouts with good execution. Bo (Spencer) came off with a wide-open shot. You think it’s going down, and then it just doesn’t go down. We had a couple of good looks for Tasmin (Mitchell) in key situations that didn’t go down as well. So, I don’t want to take anything away from Mississippi State, they made the plays and won the game. We didn’t.”
On his perspective of the last minute …
“When we score, we have to defend. Yes, we were in a situation where we could foul, but we wanted to trust the defense. Now, if we didn’t score, and we were down two, the guys we needed to follow were Jarvis (Varnado) and Ravern Johnson. Because our offense was right in front of us, I told the team they’d be able to hear me. Obviously, we want to continue with Tasmin and Bo on the ball. They did a good job of finding each other. Bo made a nice pass to Tasmin, Tasmin tossed it back to him in the corner and he knocked down a three. One of the things that they’ve always been told is that in late-game situations, you trust your defense. It’s going to be a man. Washington State was a similar situation. Utah was a similar situation. I can’t fault what happened in the stretch. No question. You have a guy in transition that’s a good shooter, and we over help. I want to give a lot of credit to Daron Populist because he’s never been in that situation. He did a very good job of leveling with one of the better perimeter players in the league with Dee Bost. If we wouldn’t have over helped in that situation, we would have been fine. He hit a deep three.”
On if he thinks he should have gone for fouls under a minute …
“I’ve never done that. I never will with an inexperienced team. With a minute to go, we were well aware of the situation. That’s asking Daron, Chris Bass and those guys to do a lot. With 15 or 20 on the clock, as skilled as they are, that gives them a chance to set up. I love those situations, and I’ve been in them before when you score and the other team is on the scramble. You’re sprinting back. That was addressed with the kids not the day of the game, but how I feel about that situation. Ever since I’ve been head coach, I’m going to trust my defense and rebounding. I’m not going to put young kids in a situation like that where you call timeout. You have to understand from our perspective, every time they had a timeout, we made a run. Then it went down boom, boom and boom. We were in scramble mode, and they were in scramble mode, and all we had to do was not over help. It was a deep three.”
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
Forward Tasmin Mitchell
On the tough loss…
“I feel like we played hard the whole game. It came down to a last-second shot. We lost by one. It’s the closest we’ve ever been to a (SEC) team this whole year. That’s a good thing. We can’t look back and say we could have done this, or we could have done that. We just played a hard-fought game and lost at the end by one.”
On if it was the toughest loss of the year…
“Yes, by far. That’s the closest we’ve ever been. When we lose, we lose. I feel like we deserved to win this game. We came out playing hard. I was in a slump in the first half, but I came back in the second half aggressive. My teammates were aggressive, too. I felt like we deserved to win the game. We just didn’t.”
On Bo Spencer taking the last-second shot too early…
“He didn’t know how much time was on the clock. If he would have come to me, I would have tried to do something with it. I guess he didn’t know how much time was on the clock.”
Forward Storm Warren
On guarding Jarvis Varnado…
“I just tried to be in position to receive some help from my teammates. I give them a big heads-up. They helped me out a lot.”
Forward Dennis Harris
On if he feels he is kind of growing up a little…
“Definitely. Coach and I sat down, and he told me I need to grow as a player and mature.”
On if he needs confidence or just more reps…
“Reps. We’ve been doing a lot of shooting in practice.”
MISSISSIPPI STATE POSTGAME QUOTES
Head Coach Rick Stansbury
Opening statement…
“This time of year, you just try to survive. Every game has different circumstances you’re coming into. Every game you’re not going to be exact in everything you do. Any time you go on the road at this time of year, it’s very difficult. I thought we played hard. We found a way to come out of here with a one-point win, and that’s all we wanted.”
On the sequence of their game-winning possession…
“Tasmin [Mitchell] was totally the difference in the game in the second half. He makes a huge play when he got the offensive rebound and knocked the three-pointer down. At that point, there were 12 or 13 seconds left. I knew I had a timeout, but sometimes it’s better to just flow and get a better shot in transition. That’s why you always talk about missed shots being a great time to score in transition. If you call a timeout, they get the defense set. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t.”
Forward Jarvis Varnado
On his mindset entering today’s game…
“I just had to step up. I was kind of upset coming off that Kentucky loss because I was on the bench the whole second half. I tried to come out here and give my team a spark on the defensive end.”
On approaching the NCAA career record for blocks…
“It’s a selfless record for me because I’m just trying not to let my opponents score. I’m doing anything to help my team out. Every time they go into the lane, I try to go get it.”
On Phil Turner’s game-winning shot…
“We believe in Phil. He’s comfortable taking that shot. That’s one of Phil’s shots and he knocked it down.”
On rebounding from their loss against Kentucky…
“We just wanted to come out with the same intensity and passion we came out with against Kentucky. They slowed us up in the zone and our guards weren’t hitting shots in the first half but we still came out with intensity. Coming off after that high feeling against Kentucky after almost beating them, we couldn’t afford a letdown today.”