BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s basketball team continued its winning ways after its final exam break and secured its fourth straight victory behind Jordan Mickey‘s 21 points, 15 rebounds and four blocks to claim a 76-67 win over Sam Houston State Saturday at the Maravich Center.
For Mickey, he was 9-of-21 from the floor. It was his fifth double-double on the season. Mickey did a majority of his damage during the opening half where he racked up 16 points and 11 rebounds.
Keith Hornsby tacked on 13 of his 16 points in the second half. He was 6-of-12 shooting highlighted by a trio of three-pointers.
Jarell Martin nearly compiled a double-double with 14 points, nine rebounds, three assists and three blocks. With LSU ahead 61-58 at the 4:05 mark, Martin drained a critical three-pointer to enable the Tigers to score 15 of the game’s final 24 points down the stretch.
Off the bench, Tim Quarterman chipped in a solid all-around effort with 11 points, five rebounds and four assists. Jalyn Patterson filled in for Josh Gray for a majority of the second half. He tacked on four points, five rebounds and three assists.
LSU has won all five games on the 2014-15 season by a margin of 11.6 points per game when the Tigers have had four players secure 10-plus points.
The Tigers (7-2) were 26-of-61 from the floor with 16 assists and 16 of its 26 field goals coming inside the paint. LSU also registered a 5-for-13 mark from three-point territory and knocked down 19-of-26 at the free throw line.
Sam Houston State (5-4) tallied a 25-for-73 shooting clip which included an 8-for-23 mark on three-pointers. The Bearkats were 9-of-15 at the charity stripe and held a 50-42 rebounding advantage. SHSU was led by Jabari Peters’ 15 points.
LSU built a 9-4 advantage and connected on four of its first six shots during the opening four minutes of the contest. Hornsby buried a three-pointer late in the shot clock followed by Mickey jump hook, a John Odo layup and a Mickey midrange jumper on an inbounds play.
LSU misfired on nine of its next 11 shots which enabled Sam Houston State put together 17 of the next 21 points over the next 6:10 off the clock. The Bearkats grabbed a 21-13 edge with 8:39 remaining on a Kaheem Ransom three-pointer.
The Tigers regrouped and drew even at 26-26 after a Mickey bucket off a Hornsby assist. Mickey completed the traditional three-point play to vault LSU ahead 27-26 at the 3:52 mark. Mickey put the finishing touches on his 16-point half by going coast-to-coast capped by a one-handed slam as LSU would take a 34-31 lead going into halftime.
LSU maintained its advantage for the entire second half. Hornsby and Martin sank trifectas 38 seconds while Hornsby added another driving layup to put the Tigers up 44-36 with 16:38 left.
Sam Houston State would get the game inside one possession four times, the latest at 61-58 with 4:05 to go which led into Martin’s three-ball from the left wing.
Martin and Quarterman tacked on layups with Quarterman’s turning into an old fashion three-point play. The Tigers would arrive at the winner’s circle, 76-67, on the strength of an 8-for-9 clip at the free throw line inside the final 91 seconds of the game.
LSU travels to UAB for its final non-conference road game on Thursday. Tipoff is slated for 8 p.m. from Bartow Arena, and the game will be televised by the CBS College Sports Network.
The LSU Sports Radio Network also will broadcast the game on Eagle 98.1 FM in the Baton Rouge area and inside the Geaux Zone at LSUsports.net/live. Jim Hawthorne, Ricky Blanton and Kevin Ford will call the action.
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 atwww.Facebook.com/lsubasketballalong with @LSUBasketball and @LSUCoachJones on Twitter and @LSUBasketball on Instagram.
HEAD COACH JOHNNY JONES
Opening Statement …
“I thought after a nine-day layoff and coming off of a big victory that a lot of things were in play that could possibly happen: one, a little bit of a hangover from the win. Then, sitting there with nine days of not playing and not being able to really go through really great, whole scale practices. I thought our guys came out and played hard in the first half. You certainly have to credit a really good basketball team in Sam Houston State. The way they executed both offensively and defensively and stayed in the game in the first half, they really pushed us out there late in the second half. I think their scores against other opponents that they have played this year especially against Texas A&M and UNLV, both on the road and how close those scores were, is indicative of the type of team that they are. I thought we did a great job of finishing the game unfortunately without Josh Gray of having to maximize some minutes with some guys on the bench. I thought our guys did a good job of finishing strong.”
On Josh Gray…
“We are not sure yet. He will probably have a couple of days. We are off tomorrow. Hopefully, they will take a look at him, and on Monday, he will be able to allow whatever swelling he has to go down to make sure that they make a true assessment on what they feel is going on.”
HEAD COACH Johnny Jones
On Sam Houston State’s rebounding effort …
“They scored 27 second chance points and got 23 offensive rebounds. That’s a credit to them and is an area we have to do a much better job in. Their post guy got eight offensive rebounds right there by the rim. If you take those away, we’re sitting in much better shape, especially after holding them to around 34 percent shooting from the field. We did a good job defensively but just didn’t finish your clean-up type of plays at the end. We have to be more focused and more determined to make sure that doesn’t happen. Before every game, one of our main focus points is to win the war on the boards. We didn’t do that tonight.”
On making plays down the stretch …
“We were able to execute. I thought we made plays because we were trying to make sure we utilized our post guys. I thought we had match-up advantages there – trying to get the ball to the rim and to the basket. Keith (Hornsby) ended up knocking down a couple of timely shots for us as well. Then, we finished it up at the free throw line. Through it all, we executed pretty well down the stretch.”
On rust from the final exams break…
“Absolutely, and I think we really have to credit our guys for being able to come out and make some tough plays down the stretch. Making some timely shots and getting to the rim against a team that stepped out there and hit some huge threes. We never were able to get away from them. I think the biggest lead was 11-12 points. We weren’t executing on as high a level as we would have liked to, but I though Sam Houston State had a lot to do with that.”
FORWARD JARELL MARTIN
On the role reversal play between he and Jordan Mickey …
“Whenever one of us is not doing great, it is nice to always have the other guy stepping up and make shots. I was struggling with some shots tonight. (Jordan) Mickey came up big by being real physical and finishing shots.”
On the defensive strategy of keeping him out of the paint tonight…
“They were pushing us off the block most of the game. They wanted us to settle for jump shots, and we tried our best to stay physical and finish. “
On his big three-pointer late in the game…
“This is something I have been struggling with, my confidence level dropped. It felt awesome to knock down those shots and really raise my confidence in the game.”
FORWARD JORDAN MICKEY
On the rust factor after coming back from finals week…
“There was a little bit if a rust factor tonight. Give credit to Sam Houston, they are a good basketball team and really physical.”
On his double-double performance tonight…
“I was able to get to the basket tonight. We were able to execute our offense, I was able to get some lay ups and good shots.”
On the importance of Josh Gray being on the floor…
“Josh brings that energy factor. He gets us up and down the court a little quicker. I am proud of Tim (Quarterman). He came in and stepped up big tonight.”
Sam Houston State Head Coach Jason Hooten
Opening Statement
“Obviously, they are a lot bigger than we are. We had to fight and claw in this game. Obviously, our guys normally do that. It was a three-possession game at the end. I thought we got a couple of bad breaks and miscalls that really affected us. I thought 10 team fouls to 22 was a really big part of the game. I’m not taking anything from them, but I expect the same thing for us. They are really good though, and Coach Jones does a great job of getting the ball to the guys he needs to get the ball to. Throwing the ball inside and then putting (Keith) Hornsby on that side of the floor is smart. My team is tough and coachable. I’m really excited the direction we are going in.”
On out-rebounding LSU…
“That’s just a part of the length and the fight of our guys. They don’t give up and pursue the boards. I told them before the game that if we can out-rebound them (LSU) then they have proven to me that we can rebound as a team. Earlier in the year during intrasquad games, we were a really bad rebounding team and that it would be a weakness of ours. We out-rebounded UNLV by 18, Texas A&M by seven and then we did it again tonight by eight. We gave them a few easy baskets, but they still only shot 42 percent. We are going in the right direction, and I’m just happy we don’t have to play any more people like this.”