CHARLOTTE AMALIE, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands – The LSU men’s basketball team hung tough, but couldn’t come up with enough big buckets down the final 3:46 of the game and fell to Clemson, 64-61, in the battle for fourth place Monday early evening in the Ezybonds Global Planning U.S. Virgin Islands Paradise Jam.
The Tigers head back to Baton Rouge 1-2 on the weekend and 3-2 on the season, looking to start again on Saturday at 7 p.m. when they host McNeese State at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The game featured 10 ties and 13 lead changes and 7 of each in a tightly contested second half. Both teams had a six-point lead at some point in the first half, but neither team could get to that point with a lead in the final 20 minutes.
LSU held a 56-52 advantage after a Josh Gray layup with 3:46 to go and from that point on, Clemson (3-2) would outscore LSU, 12-5, the rest of the game. Rod Hall made a layup to make it 56-54 with 3:32 to play.
The teams would then play 90 seconds without any scoring as the Tigers’ Jordan Mickey missed a jumper and then Jarell Martin (2) and Mickey missed tip ins. On the other end, Damarcus Harris missed a jumper and LSU came back down and missed a jumper again. The final media time out finally came at the 2:02 mark.
Out of the time out, Clemson inbounded and two seconds later, Donte Grantham hit a three and Clemson went up one, 57-56. Gray got fouled and made one free throw and the game was tied for the 10th and final time at the 1:52 mark.
On the Clemson end after a missed jumper, Jaron Blossomgame tipped in the ball to give Clemson what would be the lead for good at 59-57 with 1:28 to play. After an LSU time out, Martin missed a layup and after an LSU foul, Clemson missed a free throw but got the ball back and Clemson got another free throw with 51 seconds left to go up 60-57.
The teams traded free throws to make it 62-59 with 36 seconds left and after a blocked jumper and two missed three pointers, Martin was finally able to tip the ball in with 18 seconds left to make it 62-61.
Rod Hall made both free throws on the ensuing inbounds foul to make it 64-61 with 17 seconds left. LSU worked the ball for a final three and it ended up in Mickey’s hands beyond the arc near the top of the key and the clock running down. His shot was off with less than three seconds to go and the ball went out of bounds ending the game.
Mickey would end up with 12th career double double with 18 points and 10 rebounds to go with three assists in 39 minutes. Tim Quarterman again came off the bench to play 33 minutes and had a career scoring night with 16 points, 7 boards and 3 assists.
Clemson had four players in double figures with Harrison getting 16, Hall 14, Grantham 13 and Blossomgame 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Clemson had 24 field goals to LSU’s 23, but Clemson shot 42.1 percent from the floor, compared to LSU’s 23-of-61 (37.7 percent). The ACC Tigers made 6-of-17 treys (35.3 percent), while other than an early Quarterman trey seven seconds after entering the game at the 12:34 mark, the Tigers a combined 1-for-13 from the arc.
It marked the first time LSU had been below 10 percent from the arc since Dec. 2011 in an LSU win at North Texas when Coach Johnny Jones was the head man there before coming to LSU.
Besides Quarterman’s effort, the loss negates a solid 24-minute performance in a starting role at a third forward position as Coach Jones elected to change the lineup. Odo hit 3-of-4 shots, including a dunk, 1-of-2 at the line had four rebounds, 1 block and just one turnover.
Both Hornsby (6) and Martin (7) were held under double figures for the first time this season. Martin played just 22 minutes with foul trouble in the game and Hornsby went without a three for the first time this season.
LSU returns to Baton Rouge late Tuesday afternoon and begins preparation for the final three games before the fall semester exam break. After hosting McNeese Saturday (SECN+), the Tigers will host UMass (SEC Network) on Dec. 2 and then goes to West Virginia for an SEC/Big 12 Challenge game on Dec. 4 (ESPN2).
All three games will be on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network.
Tickets for the two LSU home games are available at the LSU Athletics Ticket Office and at LSUtix.net.
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