ATLANTA — Jeffery Taylor scored 21 points and Vanderbilt held on for an ugly 62-50 win over LSU Thursday night in the opening round of the Southeastern Conference tournament, even without the league’s top scorer.
Guard John Jenkins, averaging more than 19 points a game, sat out after tweaking his left foot in the regular-season finale against Florida last weekend. He went through warmups, and school officials said he was available if needed.
He wasn’t needed, though.
After a sluggish start, the Commodores (22-9) pulled away to lead by as many as 14 in the first half. But LSU playing hard, out scored Vanderbilt 13-5 over the last 4:32 of the half to cut the Vanderbilt lead to just six at the half, 33-27. LSU shot just 35.7 percent in the first half to 42.4 percent for the Commodores.
But in the first 5:30 of the second half, Vandy stretched the margin to 20 points against last-place LSU (11-21), which closed out its second straight 20-loss season after winning the SEC title in 2009.
Andre Stringer led the Tigers with 13 points.
But again LSU failed to just put their season in mothballs without trying to make a statement. Chris Bass hit a jumper with 4:04 remaining, cutting Vanderbilt’s lead to 58-50. LSU failed to score on seven straight possessions, failing to slice into the deficit while the Commodores also were limping to the finish.
Finally, Andre Walker knocked down a pair of free throws with 50.9 seconds remaining to seal the victory. The Commodores won even though their last field goal came with 5:35 left.
Vanderbilt, which most believe has already locked up an NCAA bid, advanced to face Mississippi State in the quarterfinals Friday night.
Without Jenkins providing a threat on the outside, the Commodores made only 3 of 22 from beyond the 3-point arc. Overall, they shot just 36 percent (20 of 55).
But LSU, with three freshman starters and little depth or size, couldn’t take advantage. The Tigers made only 18 of 59 (31 percent) and were outrebounded 48-32. Vanderbilt did turn it over 15 times to LSU’s eight and LSU had a 21-10 advantage in points off turnovers.
Festus Ezeli and Brad Tinsley added 10 points apiece for Vanderbilt, while Lance Goulbourne pulled down 13 rebounds. For LSU, Storm Warren had 12 points and Eddie Ludwig chipped in with 10.
LSU Postgame Quotes
THE MODERATOR: We’ll continue on with LSU. We’ll ask Coach Johnson for his thoughts on the game.
COACH JOHNSON: For the most part, I thought we did a very good job of competing to the best of our ability. Vanderbilt’s a very good basketball team, they’re very physical, very well coached, and I thought that they dominated us on the glass. And I thought for a period there, they sort of lost focus, and we managed to make a couple plays, make a couple shots that got us back in the game.
But I don’t want to take anything away from them. I thought we competed hard, but that’s a good team. That’s a team that if Jenkins is healthy, they’re going to go far in the tournament. And for us, it’s been a struggle all year long sustaining any type of good basketball play. But I did like the way the guys held together.
Storm fouled out, Garrett fouled out, Malcolm White had back spasms, hasn’t practiced in three days, so he wasn’t a hundred percent. So that hurt us.
But all in all, again we got beat by a good team and we are going to have a couple weeks off and get this team turned back in the right direction for next year.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.
Q. For both you guys, I think you guys were down 20 couple of times early in the second half, and obviously it’s been a long season. Just talk about the way that the team, like coach said, kind of hung together there and was able to get back and actually be within eight points late in the game.
ANDRE STRINGER: Well, we just tried to fight our best. We never really realized the game was over. It never was to us. So we just kept fighting hard and came together and tried to string something back together.
STORM WARREN: For the most part that’s pretty much what we did. That’s our team effort. We’re never going to drop our heads no matter what happens out there on the floor because we’re going to be out there together. We’re going to stick together and fight together to the end, no matter what it is.
Q. For both Storm and Dre, I know your coach doesn’t like you making any excuses. You’re a young basketball team, but you haven’t used that as an excuse all season. Just talk about that.
ANDRE STRINGER: We definitely don’t use that as an excuse. We work like everyone else work, everyone else puts our jerseys on like we do, so we can’t hang that over our head. We have to play hard and listen to coach and execute. And this year, it’s been up and down and we got to get better.
STORM WARREN: We don’t use nothing for an excuse. When you step on that court, you got to get the job done. And pretty much they just get to learn from it for being young. It’s been a great year for them stepping into college and stepping up the way they did, they did a great job.
Q. Storm, how good defense a team is Vanderbilt, would you say?
STORM WARREN: Well, I’m not going to take any credit away from those guys. They played a pretty good game today. They did everything that coach asked of them and it probably pretty much bounced in their favor. But they’re a good team, you know. They’re pretty nice this year. They did a really good job on those boards. So they’re a pretty good team. They’re pretty much going to do pretty good in the tournament as well.
Q. If you guys could, I know this game just ended, but if you could look forward a little bit to next year, your expectations and how much better do you expect this team to be?
ANDRE STRINGER: Hopefully we’ll be a lot better. We’re going to work hard, extremely hard. Obviously, as coach said we’re going to take a little time off and get right back at it. And we’re going to have to give a hundred percent every day up until next season’s first game, and I think I really believe if we do that, we’ll be a better team.
STORM WARREN: We have a great coaching staff and they’re going get us in the spots we need to be and capitalize on mistakes that we made on this season and point out the things that we probably didn’t be able to see ourselves being out there playing. But I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a nice team next year.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll take questions for coach.
Q. First off, the technical, could you tell us what happened there?
COACH JOHNSON: Yeah. I just did like that (Indicating). Okay.
Q. I know it was a frustrating season, but promising young players on this team, what gives you optimism that can you turn things around next year?
COACH JOHNSON: Obviously, we have a group of guys that are coming in there, that on paper, they’re pretty talented. So you would like to think that this group, what they went through this year, all the adversity, the up-and-downs, the inconsistency, that they will learn from it. But that’s all going to be judged in the spring and the summer.
I have a really, really good feel because the bottom line for us, and I said this going into this year, this is a team that’s a bunch of good kids. And I love them as kids. But between the lines, we’re nowhere near where he we need to be to be competitive.
So that’s going to be addressed daily, and I think on paper, we’ll be as talented as a lot of teams in our league. But 21 losses this year, 20 the previous year, it is what it is. And losing’s a bad habit and it’s something that I can’t deal with very well. I haven’t dealt with it and I’m going make sure that they don’t get accustomed to dealing with it.
Q. First off, coach, if you could just talk about the play late in the game by your team, getting down. And then also you talked a lot about the competitiveness and what are some things specifically that you can do with them in the offseason to make them more competitive?
COACH JOHNSON: Well, to make them more competitive, I’m not sure we can address that here. But the bottom line is, late in the game, I thought that, again, I said it when I first came, I thought Vanderbilt got a little bored and that’s when you’re talented and you’re good and you’ve beaten a team like they beat us at our place. I thought that they got a little bored there for a minute, the 3 ball didn’t go down for them. And I thought we for the most part we did a very good job of competing the best we could.
Chris Bass gave us some energy, got in the lane, made some plays he hasn’t made all year long. But it’s one of those games. Its one of those things. But they did what they had to do to win the game. And I think these kids all year long, literally kids, we did a good job of trying. But there’s a big difference between trying and being ultra competitive and having a little fight to yourself.
Q. Ralston’s year, all SEC freshman team, what did you like about his play this year and what do you see for him next couple years?
COACH JOHNSON: He’s number one. He’s very coachable. Number one, A, is that he’s always aggressive. He’s never afraid. He’s 0-12, but he never backed away from trying to attack a guy like Jeffery Taylor, who is the best offensive player in this league off the dribble, trying to create a shot. He’s going to be special. He has a demeanor about him. He never changes expression. But without question, he’s our best player and he’s probably our most competitive player. He’s got a chance to be a special player in this league.
Q. Can you talk about what Vanderbilt does defensively that makes it hard for teams?
COACH JOHNSON: Yeah, well, I mean, they out-rebound you, they block shots, they got a guy in Jeffery Taylor as an individual who can go guard your one, your two, and your three. And they got the big fella in the middle.
And they’re very physical in terms of how they bump you off of the cuts within the confines of the game. But again, and I’m basing that off of not how they defend us, I’m basing that of all the tapes off of Florida or when they play Kentucky. They’re a good defensive team. And they’re older and they’re experienced, so that helps.
THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you.
Vanderbilt Postgame Quotes
THE MODERATOR: We’re joined by Vanderbilt. We’ll start with an opening statement by Coach Stallings.
COACH STALLINGS: I thought that it was a really hard fought game. I thought LSU played really hard. I thought our guys played really, really hard. I was really proud of our effort on the boards, particularly Jeff and Lance and Steve. They were terrific on the back boards. And that made a big difference in the game, obviously.
Our defense, I thought, was outstanding. We didn’t shoot it well, but when John doesn’t play, we’re probably not as good a shooting team.
So we feel good about winning the game, we feel good about doing it without our leading scorer, and I thought guys really stepped up for us, including these two guys up here.
THE MODERATOR: Take your questions for the student-athletes.
Q. Jeff, did you feel any extra pressure to score given John’s status today?
JEFFERY TAYLOR: No. I view myself as a pretty capable scorer myself. So just tried to come out there and be aggressive, do what I can do, and it worked out for me. I made some shots, got fouled, went to the foul line, so it was good.
Q. Can you talk about some of your defensive objectives and just how you were trying to defend, particularly against Turner.
JEFFERY TAYLOR: Just tried to stay in front, contest all of his shots, just make it difficult for him to even get the ball. That’s pretty much the way I go about every game, just kind of trying to deny and stay in front and contest every shot. Just make it tough on them, and then if they make the shots, they make the shots.
Q. When did you guys find out that John wasn’t playing, and kind of your thoughts when you heard.
JEFFERY TAYLOR: It was a little bit before the game. But we have been dealing with injuries throughout the year, and it was the same thought process when we heard that John wasn’t going to play. Other people had to step up. We have a very capable team, very capable players, so other people stepped up and chipped in and we got the win.
Q. For both players, talk about attacking their 2-3 zone throughout the game and kind of finding some back-door cuts to build that lead.
FESTUS EZELI: Start of the game we did a good job of finding Jeff and Lance at the back of the zone. Cutting, we just made good cuts and made good passes, made them play defense. Had a couple long possessions and just found dudes, found guys.
JEFFERY TAYLOR: We were trying to attack it from the inside out, get the ball inside by the drive, the pass, or by post feeding it to Festus, also with the ball screens at the top of the zone. And fortunately for us, we have really good passers at the top, and they found guys like me, Lance, and Festus at the bottom of the zone.
Q. Festus, if you could think back to the first meeting with Mississippi State and kind of what’s the key against them in the post?
FESTUS EZELI: Well, in the post, I remember Mississippi State, they trapped a little bit in the post. But it’s a lot of one-on-one as well. So I don’t know. It’s going to be a big battle because they have a really good post player over there, so it’s going to be a big game.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll take questions for coach.
Q. LSU having the kind of season they have and of course you guys built that lead up to about 20 points. Obviously you don’t expect a team to give up, but could you just speak to the fight they showed down the stretch?
COACH STALLINGS: I said that earlier in the season when we played them at their place. I just really am impressed with the job that Trent and his staff did with that team, because it’s hard to keep a team together and energetic and playing hard when you lose a lot.
At one stretch, I think they had 10 losses in a row, and then they got a big road win, and that was actually just before we played them.
So I was very impressed with the job that they did. And you watch them on film, they play extremely hard and they play together, and you can tell they have got a plan. And he’s just got some young guys, and when those guys grow up and grow older they’re going to be a lot tougher to deal with.
Q. Talk about the extent of John’s injury and his status for tomorrow?
COACH STALLINGS: He could have played today if we gotten in a situation where we felt like we had to have him, and so we’ll see. We’ll have shoot around tomorrow and go and look and see how he’s feeling, and see if he’s any better than he was today. And so his status at this point would be questionable or uncertain. I don’t know. This is not the NFL or anything, but we’re hopeful that he’s a little better tomorrow than he was today.
Q. How comfortable were you with some of the uncommon lineups you had out there in the second half?
COACH STALLINGS: Well, offensively at times not overly comfortable. But defensively, heck, I thought they played with great passion and great energy. We hit that lull there in the last four or five minutes of the game and one of my assistant coaches said in the huddle, he said, If they don’t score again, they can’t beat us.
And I think from that point forward, and I mean there was four or five minutes to go, I think, and from that point forward, I think they only got two points.
And so we were fortunate that our defense was where it needed to be. We worked hard on it and our guys really executed tonight.
Q. You sort of touched on it, but how would you rate your defense tonight compared to how you played this season?
COACH STALLINGS: Well, it was better tonight. Now again, guarding LSU’s different than guarding Florida, that’s for sure. And I don’t mean that in any way disrespectfully towards LSU.
But I was pleased with the effort and the energy and we were locked in real well to what the plan was and what we had encouraged them to do, and they did it. It was good to see.
Q. What were you able to do against their zone, early in the first half especially?
COACH STALLINGS: I thought we got pretty good shots against it. Obviously, we didn’t shoot the ball well from three, but that didn’t concern me because we got to the line 25 times against a team that basically played the entire game in zone. So that’s a good thing.
So we were able to get penetration. When Andre is up there at the point of the zone, he can see into it, and he’s an excellent passer. So we were getting the ball inside to Steve and Festus, and we got Jeff down on the baseline a few times. And I thought Kyle Fuller penetrated the zone and gave us a good look against it, too, because he was able to get inside of the zone and kick out or see people in there and that was real helpful also.
Q. Your thoughts on the rematch with MSU and the way they have been playing lately?
COACH STALLINGS: They have been playing well. Obviously, you get to this point and you’re just happy to still be playing. And they have got a very good team, very good, very talented, and really made a nice run there at the end of the season.
And so we know it’s going to be tough game. They knocked us out of the tournament last year, and so we’ll have to be very ready to play. And we’ll have to play well and we’ll have to play better than we did today. Offensively, we’ll have to be a little better than we were today, but defensively I hope that we’re as good. And I hope that we do the same kind of job on the back boards.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports