BATON ROUGE – First game a strong performance in an eight-point loss at Vanderbilt. Then a heartbreaking one-point defeat at home last Saturday on a final seconds three-pointer to Mississippi State.
The next step in the progression was a victory and the Tigers rewarded those who stuck with the program and showed up at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center Wednesday night with a 65-54 decision over Arkansas.
The win, which puts the Tigers at 10-17 and 1-12 in the league, ended a 14-game regular season SEC losing streak that dated back to the final two SEC games of a year ago. Arkansas finds itself in a precarious situation now in its battle to win the SEC Western Division, falling to 14-14 and 7-6 in the league.
Tasmin Mitchell scored 16 points to give him 1,942 for his career, passing Shaquille O’Neal for fourth on the school scoring list at 1,941 and then equaling Howard Carter for third at 1,942. He is 58 points shy of becoming just the third LSU player to score 2,000 career points with a minimum of four games remaining to play in his career.
Bo Spencer was the only other player in double figures for the Tigers on a night when five other players scored at least six points. Courtney Fortson scored 18 points with Rotnei Clarke scoring 14.
For the first time in nine games, the opponent did not shoot 50 percent in one of the halves against LSU and the Razorbacks shot just 34 percent overall (18-of-53) with more than half of their shots (28) coming from beyond the arc where they made three. LSU was 21-of-53 overall and 7-of-16 from the arc. LSU out rebounded Arkansas, 38-35. LSU has season highs in steals (15) and blocks (9) and scored 28 points off the 21 Arkansas turnovers.
The game started all in favor of LSU as Chris Bass made two early steals that led to a Garrett Green dunk and a Storm Warren layup as despite the Tigers record LSU came out the aggressor against the Hogs. Mitchell then hit a three at the 17:42 mark to make it 7-0, the opposite of the game two weeks ago in Fayetteville when LSU fell behind 10-0 in the first 2:30. Green got another pass from Bass for a layup and it was 9-0 and forcing an Arkansas timeout 3:07 into the game.
The run reached 10 on one Mitchell free throw and a second trey around Arkansas’ first field goal and it was 13-2 at the 14 minute mark of the half.
LSU continued to hold the lead throughout the half going to the final TV timeout with a 27-15 advantage with 3:35 to play. The Tigers were 10-of-23 from the field in the first 16:30 and 4-of-7 from the arc, while Arkansas was 5-of-19 from the field and 3-of-12 from the three-point stripe. Arkansas had 10 turnovers and LSU converted for 18 points with nine steals.
The Tigers led at the half by a score of 33-18.
LSU had some problems controlling the ball at the start of the second half, but still controlled the action to a 39-25 advantage with 15 minutes to play.
Mitchell made a free throw at the 13:44 mark that tied him with O’Neal for fourth in career scoring and his second free throw of the possession gave him 1,942 points, tying for third all-time with Howard Carter.
The Razorbacks begin to whittle the lead down, to 14, at 50-36 with under six minutes to play. But Zach Kinsley answered with a running layup to make it 52-36 as the clocked ticked under five to LSU’s first possible SEC win.
Arkansas made a last run, hitting two threes around a couple of LSU free throws, cutting the LSU lead to 58-47 with 1:22 to play.
LSU HEAD COACH TRENT JOHNSON
Opening statement…
“It’s been a long time. I forgot how it felt to be honest with you. In all seriousness, this group has never quit. Zach Kinsley, Dennis Harris, Eddie Ludwig, Daron Populist, Garrett Green, I thought they all played well. I thought they all stepped up and did a good job. It’s interesting; I slept good last night. That was a problem. This morning I woke up later than I ever have. Maybe that’s been the problem. I’ve been worrying about too much stuff. I should start sleeping and not coaching.
“Arkansas obviously really handled us physically at their place, so I knew we were going to be ready to play. It was just a matter of us executing. I thought we did a really good job, probably the best job we’ve done all year at getting out to the shooters in the zone, and it sort of got them out of rhythm. Let’s not kid ourselves, (forward) Michael Washington is a big part of what they do. He not being there probably hurt them a little bit, but we’ve had our share of injuries. It’s a good win for us. We are going to shoot tomorrow light, watch a little videotape and leave to go play Auburn on Friday. We play them on Saturday.”
On how much better they are with their zone defense now than earlier this season…
“Well, whether it’s a zone or man, I think we are a lot better just because of our intensity and our effort. Getting to shooters, proper closeouts, things that are just repetition over and over again, with a young and inexperienced team is just a matter of time before they figure it out. You can’t expect Dennis Harris to be as effective in a zone or a man as a guy like Tasmin Mitchell at this level considering the amount of games he’s played. I think a guy that was really effective for us tonight — and I said this a couple of weeks ago — was Daron Populist. He remains under control. He remains poised and does an excellent job for us on scout team. We’re a lot better in the zone, and I think a lot of that has to do with our intensity and maximum effort.”
On the balanced scoring attack tonight…
“It felt good. The tempo was to our liking, but to look up and see we’re up 13 or 14 against a team of this caliber and again, that really handled us, it felt good, but this thing for us is always going to be one possession regardless of how good we are or how bad we are. I don’t get caught up in being up 15 or down 16, just trying to battle the next possession defensively and trying to execute offensively. To get contributions from guys who haven’t been shooting the ball well, I thought it was really good for them.”
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
On not letting go of the lead over Arkansas…
“We came out with a good lead. I knew we couldn’t let that lead get away from us. I felt that at the end of the first half we were going to win.”
On significance of victory…
“It’s a big win for the team and the program. It’s really going to boost our momentum. We’re going to have good momentum going into the next game. I think it was a good win for our hearts and efforts.”
On moving into tie for all-time career points…
“I’m so thankful for the achievement, but we have to continue to win. It feels good to be up there with the greats like the Pistol (Pete Maravich) and Rudy (Macklin). We need to keep winning games and stay poised, and I’ll worry about that scoring thing after.”
On getting first win in conference play…
“It feels good. It feels really good. Going 0-12 in conference play just hurts. We have come out in our next game and try to do the same thing.”
On scoring 3-pointer at the end of shot clock…
“It felt good to make that shot. I was in wide, open space. I wasn’t going to pass it; I was looking to shoot the ball.”
On getting first win in conference play…
“It’s a great feeling to get a win. We have to keep working and doing what we’re doing to pull out another win in our next game.”
On LSU’s strengths during tonight’s game…
“We stayed under control. We kept fighting. We saw we had the lead, and we just held on to it.”
On difference between previous games and tonight’s game…
“The other games were a battle. We just never quit. We’re going to keep going and keep fighting.”
ARKANSAS POSTGAME QUOTES
Head Coach John Pelphrey
Opening statement…
“Needless to say, LSU played better than us. We didn’t play very well at all, and we have to give those guys credit. Obviously, turnovers hurt us tonight. Not only did we turn it over, but it led to baskets and points. We didn’t have a very good shooting night in terms of being able to get shots off at the basket, for one, but we didn’t make a whole lot of them to boot. I thought LSU got some very good play out of some guys. (LSU guard Daron) Populist had an impact on the game, (LSU forward Dennis) Harris had an impact on the game, and (LSU guard Zach) Kinsley had an impact on the game. Certainly Tasmin Mitchell and Storm Warren and Bo Spencer did what they do. To win this league, you have to have some guys come in and step up off the bench, and they had that tonight. They deserve all the credit tonight, and unfortunately for us, it’s just a tough one.”
On if Arkansas looked past LSU after beating them by 35 previously…
“No, I don’t think so. We talked about these things. It’s unfortunate to be a realization. Like Rotnei (Clarke) said, it’s tough to lose regardless and we felt the last three road games we could have a chance to win. Unfortunately for us, we didn’t play well enough to get that done.”
Guard Rotnei Clarke
On what led to so many turnovers for Arkansas…
“Not making fundamental plays and not taking care of it. We were careless with it a lot. Not doing the fundamentals – chin in the ball, pivoting, and making smart decisions.”
On losing to a team that was 0-12 in the SEC…
“It’s not even that – losing period is the toughest thing. Their record didn’t really matter to us; just losing is tough.”
On what led to LSU’s season high in forced turnovers…
“They were active. They had quick hands. They did a great job defensively, but it was a matter of us not executing. Careless turnovers hurt us a lot in the first half and let them get out to a comfortable lead in the first half, so I think that’s what hurt us the most – turnovers.”