BATON ROUGE – Two Mississippi State free throws with 1:59 to play proved to be the difference as a gutty performance by the LSU Tigers fell just short, 58-57, to the Bulldogs Saturday afternoon at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Dee Bost made the charity tosses to give the Bulldogs the final points and a second straight one-point victory over LSU in the PMAC. Last year, State beat LSU, 60-59, in Baton Rouge.
Andre Stringer of LSU had broken the 14th tie of the game earlier with a 3-pointer to put LSU in front 57-54 with 3:21 left. Mississippi State moved ahead on a put back basket by Kodi Augustus and two free throws by Bost.
LSU never was able to get off a shot in the final minutes with a couple of turnovers and after rebounding a miss by Bost with 10 second remaining, the Tigers were not able to score as Bost was able to swipe the ball from Stringer as he attempted to go up for the game-ending shot.
Renardo Sidney led the Bulldogs (12-10, 4-4) with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Riley Benock added 12 points, while Augustus had 10. Bost finished with only nine points, half of his 18-point average.
Stringer was the leading scorer for LSU (10-13, 2-6) with 15 points. Aaron Dotson contributed 10 points for the Tigers. The Tigers and Bulldogs almost shot the same percentage with from the field (22-59, 37.3% for LSU; 20-53, 37.7% for MSU). LSU out rebounded the Bulldogs, 39-38 with Malcolm White getting nine, Garrett Green 8 and Storm Warren 7 rebounds and three blocks in his best performance since getting tendonitis in his right Achilles.
LSU took a three-point advantage into halftime on the strength of a 7-0 run. Mississippi State broke a 26-26 tie on a 3-pointer by Benock with 3:30 remaining in the half. Baskets by Turner and Dotson put the Tigers in front by one point.
Eddie Ludwig then sank three free throws after being fouled on a 3-point attempt late in the shot clock. Bost made one of two free throws with five seconds remaining to leave the Bulldogs behind 33-30 at halftime.
LSU’s biggest lead in the opening half was six points at 17-11 after Turner connected on a 3-pointer with 12:54 left. Mississippi State then outscored the Tigers 13-2 to take its largest advantage at five points.
Eight of those 13 Bulldogs points came from reserves – 3-pointers by Shaun Smith and Jalen Steele and a field goal by Brian Bryant. A 3-pointer by Benock gave Mississippi State a 24-19 lead with 7:49 remaining in the half.
It took the Bulldogs slightly more than two minutes into the second half to go out in front. A three-point play by Sidney tied the score at 33. A 3-pointer by Bost gave Mississippi State a 37-35 lead with 17:56 remaining. The game remained extremely close over the next 14 minutes.
Neither team had more than a two-point lead during that stretch. The score was tied eight times over that span.
LSU now takes to the road next week with an 8 p.m. game on Wednesday at Ole Miss and a 12:30 p.m. game next Saturday at Arkansas. LSU’s next home game is Feb. 17 at 8 p.m. against Alabama. Follow LSU Basketball on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/LSUBasketball and on Twitter @LSUBasketball and @LSUCoachJohnson.
LSU HEAD COACH TRENT JOHNSON
Opening statement…
“Throughout the course of the game, with the exception of the last three offensive possessions, we got exactly what we wanted. We had nice open shots and we had a good rhythm. I thought Andre Stringer did a great job of shooting the ball with confidence.”
“It is real apparent that we have some guys that are struggling. In the last possession I was real wary to go for an on ball, so I thought the best thing we could do regardless if it was Dee Bost or someone else guarding Andre, was to put the ball in his hands and get to a dribble. Again, Andre has been in that situation before against Wichita St. and he will be put in that situation a lot more where he can lower his shoulder and get into position where he can make a play. Dee (Bost) did a good job.”
“The prior possession to that we ran what we call basic-weak. We ran Andre off a double and he is supposed to throw the ball into the post to Malcolm (White). I think we all saw what happened. Malcolm got the ball in the post and he lost it up in the air. In the previous possession before that we went to basic and we had a nice wide open look, it just didn’t go down. The ball didn’t go down and we’re having our own issues shooting the basketball, but a team like this (Mississippi State) we held them to 58. Dee Bost was 2 out of 11. The big fellow (Renardo Sidney) when he is right is a handful and he was a handful tonight. We just had a handful of ill advised and bad decisions defensively. A few guys had breakdowns at crucial times and that hurts. We end up where we’ve been the past couple of weeks at 2-6 in the league.”
On the teams play late …
“I’m being very protective of these players because number one I don’t know how many late game situations Malcolm White has been in where the ball goes to him, but that is what we’re forced to do. He didn’t lose it on purpose. I do know how many late game situations Andre Stringer has been in at this level of play. I also know Ralston Turner was getting a ton of open shots that he usually makes. It is what it is. So when I say we got what we wanted with the exception of the ball going in the basket, I mean we got the ball to the right person at the right time in a position to score and the play wasn’t made.”
On Andre playing off the ball when Chris Bass is in the game…
“It means a lot when Chris is playing like that. When he is reading the lanes and making layups like that than it helps us because when people go underneath because they don’t respect Chris’ ability to shoot it, now they are forced to help on the kick to Andre (Stringer). I think it helps until we get another scoring option and consistent play whether is from a jump shot or a drive. We’re going to have to continue to do that.”
On attempting 24 three point shots…
“When there are open shots like that, O my goodness. Seventeen of them were from Ralston (Turner) and Andre (Stringer). Two guys going into this year that were shooting the ball very well. I’d like to be able to go inside to the post and go inside out, but we’re starting to look at what happened when we throw it in the post. We came out of one timeout and ran a basic weak counter. We threw the ball in the post and it went out of bounds. The bottom line is that I am comfortable living and dying when we get shots in a position where they have an opportunity to score. I spend a lot of time watching tape. We’ve had our share of open shots.”
LSU Player Quotes
On the offense the last few possessions …
“I don’t think they did anything different on those last few possessions. I just think our decision making was different than it was the rest of the game. I think we did a pretty good job of making decisions quickly earlier in the game, but the last few possessions we didn’t make them well.”
On whether the pressure had an effect …
“I don’t think we thought about any of the pressure. Obviously we wanted to win the game from start to finish, so I don’t think we were affected by pressure.”
On the last possession …
“I tried to get around Dee Bost as best I could. The call could have gone either way and I didn’t get past him and time ran out.”
On his two 3-pointers late in the game …
“We came into this game wanting to use lots of on-ball plays. Obviously those couple of possessions coach drew up some on-ball plays. I just wanted to be aggressive and I got a little space and knocked down the shots. Hopefully it will be good for this team if I can continue to knock those types of shots down.”
On the team’s performance …
“I think we played well. We defended well. We did the best job that we could on Renardo Sidney and we did a good job of containing Dee Bost. We just missed lots of shots. We had lots of good looks, we just did not make them. Down the stretch, we really needed to make those shots. We also had a few turnovers that hurt us. They were able to get to the line. We got what we wanted at the end of the game. We got Andre Stringer in isolation, he just didn’t get it done.”
On the team’s dependence on 3-point shots …
“I don’t think we are depending on the 3-point shot, but if teams are giving it to us, Coach Johnson wants us to shoot it. With Ralston Turner back, he is getting back into his groove, so he is going to keep shooting along with Matt Derenbecker, Garrett Green, myself and Andre Stringer. Coach likes us to shoot 3-point shots, so I don’t think we are going to back away from it. However, I don’t think it’s our identity.”
On the team’s performance …
“We hate losing no matter what, but we fought tonight. We played good defense, we just didn’t knock down enough shots. Shooting is something we can control which is good.”
On Renardo Sidney …
“Renardo Sidney is a very skilled player. He is highly ranked and he played great tonight. He is a big-body post player. He is very strong and physical on the inside. He has very good footwork around the basket. He played well tonight.”
MISSISSIPPI STATE HEAD COACH RICK STANSBURY
On Dee Bost’s play …
“First off with Dee is he hasn’t practiced the last two days because he has had a strained Achilles. Were we 100% sure he was going to start today? Not until we went through shoot-around this morning and he said he could go. I think it’s obvious watching that he wasn’t himself today. He played 36 minutes and he’s been in a boot the last two days. He took it off this morning and for him to be able to come out and play as hard as he played. That’s the key. He missed a lot of shots but he found a way to get it done.”
On how big the win is for his team …
“For us to go on the road and win today was very huge for our basketball team in a lot of different ways. In the second half I thought we got to the free throw line and we got the ball inside a bunch. We were very efficient right there. (Andre) Stringer stepped up and got them two big threes, we kind of had him at bay the whole game. He was 1-for-8 going into the end of the second half, then he made two in the last two or three minutes. For the most part I thought we did a good job on their bigs, (Garrett) Green and (Malcolm) White. They weren’t a huge factor, but they had some guys step up and make shots that don’t normally that kept them in it in the first half.
On the good interior defense …
“(Malcolm) White’s a load. We went at him early and he got two fouls in the first half and only played four minutes. In the second half he played pretty much the whole second half, but he never really was a factor. (Garrett) Green made his shots, but they were mostly face-up jumpers and not a whole lot around the hoop.”
On if it was one of the toughest wins of the season …
“No question. To come down here and do what we did in this situation right here where we had to mix and match a little bit, and Dee Bost was not as his best. He wasn’t at his best, but we played hard and that was the key.”
MISSISSIPPI STATE PLAYER QUOTES
G Dee Bost
On if he played through injury because they were down a man …
“I had thoughts about sitting out and taking a game off, but I missed too many in the first half of the year so I just played through it.”
On his defense in the final minutes of the game …
“I just knew it was crunch time and I had to be up. It was a late game situation so we needed a stop to get the win, so I just played good defense.”
On the hard-fought win …
“We are short right now and it’s always good to get a win on the road no matter what. Give (LSU) credit because they came out and fought hard today.”
G Riley Benock
On playing a man down …
“The main thing for us is to always go out and play hard. We knew we would be missing some scoring, but you can’t think about that. You just have to go out there and play with what you have, be confident in who is out there and everybody pick it up a little bit to get it done.”
On the defensive play of the team …
“Defense was still the main thing for us, and we have been struggling lately. Down the stretch we made some big plays, and really throughout the game it’s what kept us in the game because we weren’t efficient offensively sometimes. Defensively we held our own and it proved to be critical down the stretch.”
G Jalen Steele
On the gritty win …
“We really pulled this one out, especially on defense because we boxed out and we got good rebounds. We helped each other out on offense, and it was a big win for us on the road.”