BATON ROUGE – Ole Miss used a balanced scoring effort with four players reaching double figures en route to a strong second half and a 78-51 victory over the LSU men’s basketball team Saturday inside the Maravich Center.
LSU (10-9, 2-2 SEC) honored its 1981 and 1986 NCAA Final Four teams during a special halftime ceremony which ended with an address from Rudy Macklin and a standing ovation from the crowd.
Matt Derenbecker paced the Tigers with 14 points and five rebounds. The Metairie native has reached double figures in four of his last six outings.
Andre Stringer garnered nine of his 11 points behind a trio of three-points in the first half. Storm Warren and Malcolm White chipped in six points apiece for the Tigers.
The Rebels (13-7, 1-4 SEC) connected for seven of their 10 three-pointers and a 14-for-20 ratio from the floor in the second stanza. For the game, Ole Miss registered a 62.2 percent clip.
Chris Warren tallied a game-high 18 points and dished out five assists, while Zach Graham added 17 points on a crisp 7-for-9 effort. Nick Williams and Terrance Henry provided 14 and 13 points, respectively, for the Rebels.
The two teams traded three ties and nine lead changes during the game’s opening minutes. A Warren lay-up from Eddie Ludwig pushed LSU ahead 14-13 at the 11:08 mark.
After a Dundrecous Nelson jumper, Ole Miss would hold the lead for the game’s final 30:41. The Rebels scored 18 of the first 24 points in the paint to carry a 38-32 edge into the locker room.
At 43-36 with 16:06 left, Ole Miss used consecutive three-balls from Henry, Warren and Trevor Gaskins during a two-minute span to fuel a 21-6 spurt and take control of the game.
With the victory, the Rebels ended a four-game losing skid to open SEC action.
LSU hits the road for a Wednesday tilt at Tennessee. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. CT and will be televised on the SEC network.
Wednesday’s contest also will be broadcasted on 100.7 FM in the Baton Rouge area. LSU basketball fans can get updated information on the men’s basketball team at www.Facebook.com/lsubasketball and on twitter @LSUbasketball and @LSUCoachJohnson. LSU basketball ticket information is available at www.LSUtix.net.
LSU HEAD COACH TRENT JOHNSON
Opening statement…
“Just really not a whole lot I can say. One of the things for me is that the last two games we have not been very competitive. Ole Miss shot the ball extremely well. Yes, they were desperate and they are talented and all that. The thing that bothers me is our inability to get to loose balls and being beaten on the glass 33 to 19. The last time we were here, we were dominant on the glass versus an Arkansas team that is very similar. There is a level of frustration probably with the players, but for me it is a level of accountability as how we can be so inconsistent and have such a lack of effort. You guys have been around me long enough to know that I’m not pointing fingers at them. That is my responsibility.”
On what worries him about his team …
“What concerns me is that we are so inconsistent in our lack of toughness. Just to rebound the ball and to defend by sticking our nose in there. That is nothing like what I am about. And that is my responsibility. I’m not worried about their morale. I’m not worried about their psyche. I’m worried about them getting it done on a consistent basis. We’re 19 games into this thing.”
On what went wrong down low…
“We got the ball where we needed to get it. We didn’t finish plays and they did a good job defensively. We didn’t finish plays, and they did a good job of finishing.”
On what needs to be fixed…
“Some of our guys are not aggressive enough. The word I use, and it is nothing that is negative, is you can’t be afraid to make a play. You can’t be afraid to make a shot when you’re open. I’ll bring Ralston (Turner) into this for a second. He can miss 12 or 20, but he’s going to shoot them all the same. They did a good job on Andre (Stringer), but Malcolm (White), Garrett (Green) and Storm (Warren) are in situations where they can make plays. That’s not the problem. The problem is us competing on a consistent basis. I don’t care who is out there.”
On Garrett Green potentially being more effective coming off the bench…
“I’ve thought about that. He is a 21 year old redshirt junior. He is probably our best athlete and most productive post player at this time. We don’t have a lot of options. Against a team like this, we made the decision to start Garrett because we were worried about our start. Garrett can get to more stuff then Eddie (Ludwig) can on the glass, although Eddie does the best that he can he is challenged by a lack of size and speed.”
LSU Player Quotes
On the last team’s effort in recent games …
“The last two games have been embarrassing. We have been dominated in all aspects of the game. We hit a few shots early in the game today, but that did not mean much when it came down the stretch and we couldn’t guard anyone or get a rebound. We have just played horribly the last couple of games. We are not talented enough to come into league play and try to rely on talent and not rely on hustle and rebounding like we did the first two games.”
On Ole Miss’ defensive effort …
“The whole game, they had nothing to lose. They came into today 0-4 in conference play. They were searching for that first conference win. Coach stressed that they were a desperate team that was going to pick up the pressure because they were searching for that first win. We felt confident at halftime only down six and we felt we could come back. I don’t know if it was the pressure, but they definitely came out intense in the second half.”
On the team’s recent lack of offensive success …
“Other teams are scouting us well and our perimeter players have not been able to find many open shots. Now we have to create more of our shots, which I think has been a difference between now and earlier this season. Those are the things we have to work on. If our initial shot is not there, we have to find ways to make plays.”
On Ole Miss’ effort in the second half …
“They had nothing to lose and they came out on fire in the second half. They came out with lots of pressure. We handled it initially, but they opened it up and we were unable to come back.”
On whether this game meant more to him
“I look at every team the same. I don’t bring my intensity level down against anyone else. My approach to the game is the same whether I know my opponents or not.”
On the team’s expectations coming into today’s game …
“We had a game plan to be very vocal in the zone. I played with Chris Warren and some of their other players, and they can shoot the ball very well. They shot the ball very well from beyond the arc. When guys shoot that well from beyond the arc, there is basically nothing you can do about it. You can try to change some things up on defense. They just made more shots and more plays. They got to more loose balls and that is why they came out with the victory. We just need to get better defensively.”
OLE MISS HEAD COACH ANDY KENNEDY
Opening Statement …
“I thought we played pretty well. Not only did we need to win, but we needed to stop the bleeding and we needed to play the way I thought we are capable. The first half I thought our effort was good, but we were a little tentative with the ball, which it typically why people play a lot of zone is they want to make you a little tentative and passive. We continued to preach being aggressive, and in the second half I thought we did an excellent job of attacking the zone and scoring the ball efficiently. Except for the turnovers we did a good job offensively. Defensively I thought we were really locked in we did a good job of taking them out of first shot offensive opportunities, which has been an issue for us. Our big four, meaning Chris (Warren), Zach (Graham), Nick (Williams) and Terrance (Henry), all played well and as a result it was a convincing win on the road, which is something this team needs leading into an off week. Then we have two big opportunities with Tennessee on Saturday and Kentucky on Tuesday.”
On how they took away first shot opportunities …
“I thought we were locked in and were really aware communicating with one another and being where we were supposed to be. Defense is all about effort and angles, and you can’t have one without the other. Sometimes your effort is great but if you take a bad angle or are in the wrong position it does you no good, and obviously if you don’t play hard everything else is irrelevant. Not only did I think we were locked in but we were really aware where we were supposed to be, which is what this team needs.”
On stopping LSU’s three point shooters after they made four out of their first five threes …
“The four were made by (Matt) Derrenbecker and (Andre) Stringer, two true freshmen. Quite honestly there was some baseline screening action and there was too much separation. We told them to shadow those guys. We knew coming in that if Ralston Turner didn’t play then they kind of score by committee inside. They guys that have been scoring for them have been their perimeter guys, mainly Andre Stringer who is a volume guy who scores and Matt Derenbecker who has really stepped his game up in lieu of Ralston Turner being out. We were just preaching that you have to stay attached to these guys and we weren’t doing that early.”
On where they are at this point in the season …
“The beginning of our league schedule was very difficult, and certainly I don’t like being 1-4 but I knew if we didn’t take the right approach we could have been 0-5 staring at Tennessee. Hopefully this is what we needed to flip this, there is still a lot of basketball to be played and our guys are going to continue to battle.”
OLE MISS PLAYER QUOTES
F Terrance Henry
Opening Statement …
“We got our first win and it feels good. Are we happy or are we satisfied? No we aren’t satisfied because we know we should be higher than our record indicates right now. We are going to build for this game and get ready for Tennessee and Kentucky.”
On how badly Ole Miss needed this win …
“We needed it. We really needed it because 0-5 would have been horrific. We said coming into this game we would do whatever it takes to win.”
On if LSU was poor offensively or if Ole Miss was good defensively …
“I don’t know anything about them not being good offensively, they looked good on film. They just couldn’t hit rhythm shots because we didn’t give them any rhythm shots. We crowded Andre Stinger and when Matt (Derenbecker) got it we tried to dig on him. We tried to pick up our defense because that is the reason we have been losing.”
On what went wrong defensively in the first half …
“The first half our guards were getting confused, we weren’t communicating if they were going to switch. We figured it out the second half and didn’t give them too many open looks.”
G Nick Williams
On what he did to get his offense going …
“Just staying within myself, I didn’t try to get ahead of myself. The coaches told me to just keep playing the way I am playing and eventually it would come. I have been playing OK lately but not to my potential. I just tried to get in there and do what I do and not get ahead of myself.”
On if he was surprised LSU stayed in the zone in the second half …
“Not really because they are a man team but lately they have been all zone, they kind of sell out to it. Coach has been preparing us really well for this game, and we knew they would play zone for probably 35 minutes so we just went in there and attacked and made some shots.
On why the team needed the win …
“We just knew we weren’t an 0-4 team we just weren’t playing up to our potential. We have had some good spurts we just needed to sustain it. Today was a great day for us because we got our first win so hopefully we will build off of it.”