BATON ROUGE – Tim Quarterman racked up 11 of his career-high 27 points during the overtime periods to lift the LSU men’s basketball to a gritty 87-84 come-from-behind double overtime victory over Georgia on Saturday evening at the Maravich Center.
LSU (12-3, 1-1 SEC) overcame a nine-point deficit with 2:21 remaining in the first overtime after leading scorer Jarell Martin fouled out of the contest. The Tigers ripped off a 12-3 spurt to extend the game.
Quarterman went to work and swished a three-pointer from the top of the key followed by a Josh Gray traditional three-point play on a driving layup to draw the Tigers back within 79-74 with 1:08 left.
Quarterman dialed up another trey to make it a one possession game, 80-77, with 37.7 seconds left on the clock. After UGA’s Charles Mann misfired on a pair of free throws, Quarterman attacked the basket. He hit a driving layup, was fouled and connected on the ensuing free throw to knot the score at 80-80.
After the Bulldogs (9-5, 0-2 SEC) missed a three-pointer at the buzzer, Jalyn Patterson sank a pair of free throws in the opening minute of the second extra session to give LSU an 83-82 lead it would not relinquish. Quarterman pushed the Tigers to an 86-82 advantage with another driving layup.
Georgia had a final opportunity to extend the game, but Quarterman stole the ball from Mann as he went up for a game-tying three-pointer during the closing seconds.
For Quarterman, he was 10-of-16 from the floor highlighted by a six triples. He tacked on five rebounds, five assists, three blocks and three steals. The three blocks were a career-high, while the three steals equaled a career-best.
Patterson pumped in a career-high 15 points and handed out three assists. The Patterson-Quarterman combo sparked the Tigers to a 42-23 advantage in bench points.
Jordan Mickey came away with 18 points, eight rebounds and three blocks. Mickey was 6-of-9 from the field and knocked down 5-of-6 at the foul line.
Josh Gray amassed 15 points and six assists, while Jarell Martin secured seven points and six rebounds. Both players fouled out during the first overtime period.
UGA’s Kenny Gaines was one of five players to garner double figures. He collected 19 points and was a flawless 8-for-8 at the charity stripe. Marcus Thornton added 16 points and 16 rebounds for the Bulldogs.
LSU erased a five-point hole during the first half and used an 8-point flurry from Patterson midway through the stanza to go up 25-23 at the 7:59 mark of the first half.
The Tigers pushed their lead to 42-36 heading into the locker room after Quarterman rattled home a deep three-pointer in the closing seconds.
LSU protected its advantage for a majority of the second half and led by as many as eight points, 64-56, with 7:11 to go after a Martin jumper.
Georgia wrapped up regulation with 11 of the final 14 points, and Thornton evened the score at 67-67 with a tipin in the closing seconds.
The Bulldogs kept the momentum and another Thornton layup followed by eight consecutive free throws give Georgia a 77-68 advantage with 2:21 remaining.
Up next, LSU travels to square off with Ole Miss on Wednesday evening. Tipoff is on-tap for 6 p.m. from Tad Smith Coliseum, and the game will be televised by the SEC 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.
LSU Men’s Basketball Postgame Quotes
LSU vs. Georgia – January 10, 2015
HEAD COACH JOHNNY JONES
Opening Statement …
“It was a quick turnaround. We played Thursday and had a Saturday game with a travel day in there. Upon getting back, we were trying to prepare for probably one of the most experienced teams in our league, a team who won 20-plus games last year on the verge of possibly being in the NCAA tournament. They have experienced guys. We knew it was certainly going to be a tough challenge here for us tonight. I thought Georgia did an excellent job of coming and executing and really controlling the tempo of the game early. Our guys got into the press, and we were able to speed them up a little bit to get the tempo to our liking. At the same time, we continued to battle tonight. From start to finish—40 minutes of that game—we had an opportunity to win it there at the end and didn’t come up with the big rebound, which put the game into overtime. Then, being down eight points with a minute and plus left, we put ourselves in the position to win. Tim Quarterman had a presence of mind, getting into to the rim instead of settling for the three-pointer and was fouled. He was poised under pressure and knocked a free throw down … It was a great team effort, and we are excited about the win tonight.”
On what it means to win a tough game in double-overtime …
“It was certainly a great battle. We’ve been in some tough overtime games. A couple years ago we were in a three-overtime game here against Alabama. This would rank up there with the best because of the caliber team that they are. With guys fouling out of the game, we didn’t have them available for us at the end. So, other guys just have to really step up. Jalyn (Patterson) missed a couple free throws. He’s a tough player, certainly with ice water in his veins. They didn’t go down, but he was able to get in there in the overtime to make one of those free throws and put us up three. Then, we were able to finish it there at the end. Certainly, it was a game that we will remember for a while, but we’ve quickly got to put it behind us because we’ve got another challenge on Wednesday.”
On Tim Quarterman‘s leadership throughout the game …
“At timeouts, in the huddle, he reiterated to the guys quite often that we weren’t going to lose the game. We had to continue to fight. We had to continue to battle. Even when he threw the errant pass to Jalyn (Patterson), when we were four up and could have gone up six, he took it upon himself. He knew that he wanted to make a really good, solid defensive play on the other end because he didn’t want to let his team down. He’s done an excellent job, not only on the floor, but being vocal as well.”
On Tim Quarterman‘s play tonight and this season …
“I think his numbers have really changed, especially from last year; the way he’s executed on the floor, not only defensively. Last year, I thought he was probably our best perimeter defender. This year I think you’ve seen his game grow, in terms of assists, taking care of the basketball, creating opportunities for others on the floor and making big shots for us. Tonight was exceptional for him. Some of the shots he wound up hitting, we generally don’t take. He had a couple of deep threes, one off-balance in the fourth quarter; a big one that was needed. So, Tim had another excellent game tonight, but he’s really been playing that way for us all season.”
On the team’s mindset after falling behind late in the game…
“I told all my teammates in the huddle that we are not going to give up and we are going to continue to fight. We got some turnovers, some easy baskets and made some difficult shots. We ended up playing well as a team. We fought as a team and we overcame.”
On the pressure to step up after Jarell Martin fouled out…
“One of our big players went down in Jarell. Other players had to find way to step up. Josh [Gray] had a big ‘and-one’ late. I made some plays and Jalyn [Patterson] made some free throws. Everybody stepped up as a team. Jordan got some key rebounds. It was a team effort tonight.”
On how the team was able to rebound after the overtime loss at Missouri…
“We stayed focus. We never gave up. It was easy to give up but we kept fighting and we overcame. It means a lot, especially in front of our fans. They were loud and they helped us. It means a lot for our team for momentum and chemistry. Everybody is excited and we got everyone a win tonight.”
On Tim Quarterman…
“Tim is a ‘hooper.’ He never gives up and will give you everything he has no matter how he is feeling. You get everything out of Tim every night.”
On the importance of the victory…
“It is big for us. It shows that our team has some resilience in it. We never gave up, we fought until the end and we never gave up.”
On the team’s mindset after falling behind in the game…
“I told my teammates that we are going to win this game or die trying. We would not leave this arena with a loss. I felt like we all had that same mindset and for us to really dig in deep and find some stuff we did not know we have shows what we are about.”
On Tim Quarterman…
“Tim and I go really hard in practice. We really push each other and go hard like we are on two different teams. I feel like all that work that he puts in the gym is paying off.”
GEORGIA HEAD COACH MARK FOX
On the last possession…
“I don’t have a whistle and I’m not going to think that this game had anything to do with officiating. We made too many mistakes. We just made some really silly plays to cost us the game. I’d have to watch the last play on tape.”
On shutting LSU down in the second half…
“We finally got some stops. We couldn’t get any stops early. We have not been very good defensively this week. They exposed us there early. Finally we were able to figure out a way to get some misses and gets some rebounds. Still we made some really silly errors.”
On Tim Quarterman‘s performance…
“He played well. Obviously their team had a little stronger will and the crowd definitely helped them at the end and pushed them through. We certainly opened the door for them though with the errors we made.”
On what to tell his team…
“Well we obviously can’t make the errors we made and win the game. We had the game in the first overtime and we were in position to close it out. We opened the door for LSU to get it to a second overtime. We have to learn from our mistakes and regroup to play the next one.”
On the errors…
“There were judgment errors like trying to go score when we know we could run off time. Also fouling a guy that gives them a chance to tie the game and get it to a second overtime. We had 11 turnovers between our two point guards. We didn’t have a very sound night.”
On the last play…
“That’s something we can’t control and we know it. Unfortunately we didn’t have any timeouts to get organized so that’s what we got.”
On the run to force overtime…
“I think we just worked and competed. That’s the most you can ask for. We had a chance to win the game and we didn’t do what it took to finish. We have to saddle back up and get ready for the next game.”
On handling a game like this…
“It hurts and it’s tough. Just like any other game, win or lose, you have to flush it and move on to the next game. There are going to be other tough games like this. No matter how it goes, we have to just roll with the punches.”