BATON ROUGE – Four LSU Tigers, paced by the 21 points of Jarell Martin and Jordan Mickey, helped LSU finally power past a stubborn Gardner-Webb team, 93-82, in the season opener for both teams Saturday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
LSU’s up tempo style paid them dividends in the end, but defensively LSU struggled especially in the first half to control the Running Bulldogs. But a 51-point second half allowed LSU to rally from a one-point halftime deficit to get the victory.
Besides the 21 points each of Martin and Mickey, point guard Josh Gray had 18 points and Keith Hornsby 17. More impressively, the foursome made 31 of LSU’s 36 field goals and all four shot at least 50 percent from the field (Martin 7-14, Mickey 9-11, Hornsby 7-14, Gray 7-11). As a team, LSU shot 52.2 percent from the floor (36-of-69) and an even more impressive 13-of-14 at the free throw line. LSU is 12-1 in the Johnny Jones era when shooting 50 percent or better from the floor and 15-3 when scoring 80 or more points.
Martin added 11 rebounds to secure a double-double (his second of his career), while Mickey dished out a team-leading six assists. The quartet of Gray, Hornsby, Martin and Mickey combined for 43 of LSU’s 51 points during the second half.
Gardner-Webb was paced by Jerome Hill (23 points) and Tyrell Nelson (16 points). They were held to a combined 10 points during the 2nd half.
The Running Bulldogs were able to control the game in the first half in spite of a couple of LSU runs. The Tigers appeared to take control early when they used a 12-0 run to go up 13-6 and later 18-10 in the first seven minutes of the contest. But Nelson and Hill were having their way and Gardner-Webb cut the game to one, 23-22, with 9:31 to go in the opening stanza on a trey by Harold McBride.
A three-pointer by Dylan Postan gave Gardner-Webb a 31-30 advantage at the 5:27 mark and the teams pretty much traded buckets the rest of the half with the Runnin’ Bulldogs scoring 43 first-half points to lead, 43-42. A total of 32 of GWU’s first-half points came in the paint.
It was 59 seconds before LSU took the lead for good on a Martin three-pointer, 45-43, and moved to its first double digit lead, 62-52, on a Mickey layup with 14:02 to play. The Tigers would lead by as much as 16, 80-64, on a Gray layup with 4:26 to play. Gardner-Webb continued to play hard and cut the lead down to five, 87-82, with 44 seconds to play, but LSU scored the final six points for the final margin.
In the end, Gardner Webb and LSU were just about even in points in the end, 50-48, in favor of the Bulldogs, but LSU had a big 22-5 advantage on second chance points. Gardner Webb finished 35-of-75 from the field for 46.7 percent and LSU had a 47-28 advantage in rebounds.
LSU returns to action against Texas Tech on Tuesday as part of ESPN’s Tipoff Marathon. Tip time is slated for 8:30 p.m. from the Maravich Center. The game will be televised by ESPN2, www.WatchESPN.com and the Watch ESPN app. It is student point night and all LSU students are admitted free with valid ID. Tickets are available at LSUtix.net and at the LSU Athletics Ticket Office.
For all of the latest news and information on Tiger basketball, visit www.lsusports.net/basketball. Fans can also follow the program on its social media outlets at www.Facebook.com/lsubasketball along with @LSUBasketball and @LSUCoachJones on Twitter and @LSUBasketball on Instagram.
LSU Basketball Postgame Quotes
LSU vs. Gardner-Webb – November 15, 2014
HEAD COACH JOHNNY JONES
Opening Statement …
“It’s good to get that first game under our belt. I thought we played a team today who did an excellent job of coming out and executing offensively, really controlling the tempo in the first half of the basketball game, making plays. I thought they did an excellent job of pushing the ball down, getting it inside in the paint area, scoring. I didn’t think we did a good enough job of showing them any resistance. I thought we were passive in the post. I thought we played it safe. I didn’t think we were aggressive enough in there against their post guys early, and they were able to get comfortable and make some plays down there and go in to lead at halftime. We were glad to make a adjustment at halftime, forced them to take some outside shots, and I thought offensively, we got to clicking, making plays, had some easy scoring opportunities on the other end of the floor, shot the ball better there in the second half. Then, we were able to win the war on the boards. That was something that we wanted to make sure we did a better job of today and almost a 20-rebound difference there in the basketball game. Certainly, we have to get better, but credit to (Gardner-Webb) for the great job they did early on. Credit our guys for getting out there and finishing off offensively. Offensively, I don’t think that is where our problem is. Defensively, we’ve got to make sure we continue to improve.”
On the defensive effort …
“Even when we were inside, I thought they did an excellent job of just getting the ball inside, being patient with it and taking it right at our better defenders. I thought they took it right at Jordan (Mickey) inside and made some easy plays in there. Fortunately, we have big Elbert (Robinson III) who I thought did a good job, but they are a smaller basketball team. They are a little bit quicker. We tried to go smaller, as well, and I thought they took advantage of that.”
On the physicality of the players throughout the game…
“I think when you play passive like that, you’re trying not to foul, and when you put yourself in the position to do that, teams have a chance to take advantage of you because there’s no resistance. We didn’t give them that early. When that happens, teams become confident, and I thought those guys (GWU) became a confident bunch. Had we stopped them early, not let them get in the comfort zone and blocked some early shots, they may have gone to look somewhere else to score, but they had too much success there. I think you just have to bow your neck, be tougher down there and get in there and make plays.”
On their style of play …
“I think because we are a fast-paced team … we are going to play at a quicker pace when we have the opportunity to. I thought (Gardner-Webb) did an excellent job of controlling the tempo in the first half, and unfortunately, we gave up 40-something points and put them on the pace to score 80-plus points, which they wound up scoring. We are hopeful that the offensive end can continue that, but on the defensive end, we certainly have to do a much better job of holding our opponents to a much lower score. You can’t give up 80 points a game and win a lot of games.”
On his locker room conversation during halftime…
“I did have to make sure that we addressed them at halftime because I didn’t think we were as aggressive as we needed to be … Again, we have a new basketball team, a lot of new guys, a lot of new pieces out there, and they have to learn how to play together. We certainly had to address that at halftime, and as we continue to play games, we are hopeful that we will continue to improve.”
GUARD KEITH HORNSBY
On what Coach Johnny Jones told the team at halftime…
“What we were really focused on at halftime was how to defend their post players because they really hurt us in the first half. Honestly, Coach (Jones) is going to fire us up, but we don’t need him to do that. We do that for ourselves. Right when we came into the locker room, me, Jarell (Martin), (Jordan) Mickey, Josh (Gray) and other guys, Tim (Quarterman) were firing each other up. We knew they were leading at the half, and we knew that we had to come out with a different type of energy. I think we did that eventually.”
On what was going through his mind when he scored nine straight points…
“I was getting really excited, but I had to keep my composure because I helped extend the lead. You can get out of sync when you do that. I mean the game’s not over. I was excited, but I made sure I moved on right after I scored those points. I think I did that.”
FORWARD JARELL MARTIN
On what the team had to do defensively in the second half…
“We had to play real physical down low with their bigs. They came out setting the tone down low so we definitely had to work on that-make sure they weren’t getting any touches and scoring easily down low.”
On Gardner-Webb taking advantage of LSU’s aggressiveness on defense…
“That’s definitely what it was. They definitely took advantage of that. We weren’t playing physically with them. We didn’t come out setting the tone and (we were) not being vocal out there. They were hitting the back door cuts and stuff. We just got to go out and make sure we’re communicating on the floor and having each other’s backs.”
On if he likes the 2-3 zone defense better…
“Yeah, 2-3 zone, there’s not that many things you that you can do. The main thing is that you can communicate. Just communicate, have each other’s backs and just box out and take shots.”
Gardner-Webb Head Coach Tim Craft
On Gardner-Webb’s performance against LSU…
“I thought it was an offensive battle. Both teams were pretty good offensively, but we certainly couldn’t defend them well enough outside or around the rim. Jordan Mickey was terrific. (Jarell) Martin was terrific. Around the rim, we were just too soft and couldn’t guard. I thought when Coach Jones went to the zone it changed the game. Midway through the second half he switched, and it really changed the game. It kept us shooting a lot of jump shots and a lot of threes. We weren’t making very many of them. They were booking it out in transition and scoring on the other end. At the end of the day, we weren’t good enough on the defensive end to sustain the game and put ourselves in position to win. Credit LSU because their inside guys were too good for us.”