CHARLOTTE AMALIE, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands – The LSU men’s basketball team, behind the career night of 27 points and 14 rebounds by Jordan Mickey, bounced back from Friday’s loss to Old Dominion to pull away from Weber State in the final 20 minutes to score a 72-58 win here Saturday evening in the consolation round of the Paradise Jam.
The Tigers, who made 19-of-31 second half shots for 61.3 percent, advance to the fourth place game on Monday at 5 p.m. AST, 3 p.m. CST, against Clemson, a winner over Nevada in the other consolation game at the University of the Virgin Islands Sports and Fitness Center. Weber State and Nevada will play prior to the LSU game on Monday for seventh place. The other two matchups on Monday’s final day of play will be determined Sunday evening when the semifinals are played (ODU vs. Illinois State, Seton Hall vs. Gardner-Webb).
Mickey, who was 5-of-14 in the first half for 10 points, played all 20 minutes in the second half and made 8-of-14 shots, including his first college three-pointer, to finish with a career high 27 points. That topped his previous career high of 25 against ULM in December 2013. The sophomore’s previous high for field goals made prior to his 13 effort was 10 in a loss to Rhode Island in January of this year.
Mickey had his second double double of the season, the 11th of his career, as he had an even line of 7 offensive and 7 rebounds for 14 total, one more than his previous high of 13 which he has had three times. Mickey also had two assists, two steals and two blocks.
Keith Hornsby also had another strong night with 18 points and four assists, three steals as he had his fourth straight double figure game of the season. Jarell Martin had 11 points despite some foul trouble.
LSU had its first lead of the game at the end of the first half, 28-27, in a game in which LSU built a 10-point advantage, then saw the NCAA Tournament squad from Weber of a year ago, cut the game to one-point at intermission. LSU was 13-of-34 in the first half and had just one free throw attempt, while Weber hit 45.5 percent (10-of-22) and 6-of-9 at the free throw line.
In the second half, the Tigers and the Wildcats spent the first 5:30 of the half trading the lead back with a Richard Gittens layup by Weber tying the game at 41-41.
From there LSU began to dominate the game in the paint and got easy field goal attempts, building the lead to 10 with 6:23 to play on a Martin layup, 61-51. LSU’s final layup by Josh Gray with 1:55 to play gave LSU its biggest lead and was the last bucket scored in the game by either team.
LSU finished the game with a 52-26 advantage in points in the paint and a 20-13 advantage for the Tigers in points off turnovers. LSU had a 36-10 advantage in paint points in the second half.
The Tigers only go to the line six times, but made five, while Weber State shot 42.6 percent for the game (20-47) and made 13-18 FT attempts. LSU had the advantage at 34-29 on the boards with 15 offensive.
Joel Bolomboy lived up to his advance billing with 18 points and 13 rebounds, but six turnovers. Jeremy Senglin had 15 points on the night.
A total of 11 players played for the Tigers with six scoring. Gray and Brian Bridgewater had four each and Tim Quarterman continued his good numbers off the bench, getting 31 minutes, hitting 3-of-5 shots, and two free throws to finish with eight points, four rebounds and two assists.
The team has Sunday off and is expected to practice sometime in the late afternoon after the players are allowed to take part in some tournament activities.
There will be video streaming of the game on Monday and the broadcast will be available on the LSU Sports Radio Network.
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