CHARLESTON, S.C. – The LSU men’s basketball team completes its four game road trip to the state of South Carolina on Sunday when it faces Georgia Tech in the fifth place game of the Charleston Classic at the TD Arena.
LSU (2-2) tries to end the four games with two wins and continue the strong second half it displayed in Friday’s 76-57 win over Western Kentucky. The Tigers lost on the first day of the tournament on Thursday, 88-82, to Northwestern.
Georgia Tech enters the game 3-1 with two completely different games. On Thursday after leading at the half, the Yellow Jackets fell to Saint Joseph’s while Friday night, Georgia Tech rallied from eight down at the half to win going away against VCU, 73-60.
LSU and Georgia Tech meet in the second game on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. EST in a game to be broadcast on ESPN3 with the radio broadcast available on the LSU Sports Radio Network and in the Geaux Zone at LSUsports.net. VCU and Western Kentucky will meet in the opener at noon for seventh place (ESPN3) with Saint Joseph’s and Tulsa meeting in the consolation championship at 6 p.m. (ESPNU) followed by the tournament championship game at approximately 8 p.m. (ESPNU) between Seton Hall and Northwestern.
Justin Hamilton led LSU in the win over Western Kentucky with 18 points and nine rebounds, while Anthony Hickey had 17 points, seven boards and four assists. After a sluggish first half in which LSU shot four free throws in the first 19 seconds because of WKY technicals but didn’t get their first field goal for almost seven minutes. Up just two, 40-38, at the break, LSU had runs of nine and 16-0 to break the game open while outscoring the Hilltoppers, 36-19.
But it was a second half that the team needed after being unable to complete the Northwestern game on Tuesday.
“Coach told us we have to learn to finish the game,” said freshman point guard Hickey. “I tried as a point guard to be solid and be a leader out there. Everybody thinks losses are always a bad thing. But it’s what you take from them and work on. This time with the lead we just kept our mind on what we were supposed to do and just kept working to expand the lead and keeping our mind focused.”
Hickey and Hamilton have both averaged 14 points in the first two games of the tournament.
“We learned (Thursday) that if we don’t come out hard in both halves we can lose,” said Hamilton. “So we wanted in the second half (Friday) to emphasize all the little things, getting the second chance points, being aggressive and we put two halves together and we came out with the win.”
For Hamilton, it was a 5-of-10 night from the field, but also 8-of-8 at the free throw line with nine boards.
“Hickey and Andre (Stringer) and all the guards are distributing the ball to everyone,” Hamilton said of his guards which combined for 11 assists against Western Kentucky. “We all really felt good about that game.”
Coach Johnson elected not to practice his team on Saturday, giving them a little free time and a chance to get their legs back before the Sunday finale. He was very pleased with the bench’s effort against Western Kentucky to help the team through some long minutes earlier in the week.
“It was our third game in four days,” said Johnson. “We were a little tired. But our bench did a good job and we got some good contributions from them. They gave us some freshness and some energy. It was good win for us. Now we want to continue this on Sunday and then get back home and prepare for South Alabama.”
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