BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s basketball team rode the momentum of a 12-2 run over the last 2:45 of the game to turn the tables and battle back for a 64-58 victory over South Carolina on Wednesday evening at the Maravich Center.
The win enabled the Tigers (16-4, 5-2 SEC) to keep pace in a four-way tie for second place in the SEC standings. LSU also collected its third consecutive win over the Gamecocks (10-9, 1-6 SEC).
Tim Quarterman racked up 11 of his game-leading 16 points during the second half. He was 5-of-10 shooting and drained all five of his free throw attempts. Quarterman added five rebounds, three assists and three steals over his 34 minutes off the bench.
Keith Hornsby tacked on 15 points on 6-of-12 from the floor. He has reached double figures in four of his last five outings.
LSU racked up 13 blocked shots, the most during the Johnny Jones era. The 13 rejections also were the most for the Tigers in a SEC game since they recorded 14 versus Alabama on March 5, 2008.
Jordan Mickey garnered 14 points, six rebounds and six blocks. The six blocks allowed Mickey to move past Chris Johnson (2006-09) for second place on LSU’s all-time list. Mickey has totaled 177 career blocks and notched at least five blocks 18 times during his career.
Jarell Martin came away with 10 points, 11 rebounds and a career-high six blocks. He has registered a double-double in three of his last five appearances. Josh Gray fueled LSU’s strong finishing kick with six of his seven points down the stretch.
Trailing 56-52 with 2:45 remaining, Gray drained a three-pointer off a screen. He added a driving runner of the glass to vault LSU ahead 57-56 at the 2:00 mark.
After a South Carolina basket, the Tigers responded with a Martin dunk off a nice drive and dish from Quarterman to go back up 59-58 with 1:09 to go.
LSU made a defensive stop courtesy of a Mickey block, but the Tigers were called for a five-second violation on the ensuing possession with 26.4 seconds left.
South Carolina ran a backdoor cut play, but Marcus Stroman’s layup attempt was swatted by Hornsby. The Tigers salted the game away in back-and-forth second half that featured 10 lead changes and sank 5-of-6 at the free throw line inside the final 21 seconds to close out the 6-point win.
The Gamecocks had three players register double figures headed by Duane Notice’s 12 points followed by Sindarius Thornwell’s 11 points. The duo had to work for their points on a combined 7-for-27 shooting effort.
LSU took a 29-28 lead into the locker room. The Tigers made seven of their 10 field goals inside the paint as Hornby and Mickey tallied eight points apiece.
LSU completes the January portion of its schedule Saturday afternoon at Mississippi State. Tip time is on-tap for 1 p.m. from Humphrey Coliseum. The game will be televised by the SEC Network along with www.WatchESPN.com and the Watch ESPN app.
The LSU Sports Radio Network will broadcast the game on its flagship station Eagle 98.1 FM in the Baton Rouge area and for Geaux Zone subscribers at www.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, visitwww.LSUsports.net/basketball. Fans can also follow the program on its social media outlets atwww.Facebook.com/lsubasketball along with @LSUBasketball and @LSUCoachJones on Twitter and @LSUBasketball on Instagram.
LSU Men’s Basketball Postgame Quotes
LSU vs. South Carolina – January 28, 2015
HEAD COACH JOHNNY JONES
Opening Statement …
“We knew coming into the game tonight the history of South Carolina and the talent they play with just from their games they’ve had this year especially with the nonconference portion of the year. They beat Oklahoma State, Iowa State who is a top-25 team and Clemson. Then, just the other night, they were in a very close game with the No.1 team in the country, Kentucky. They’ve certainly been battling all year, and we didn’t expect anything different tonight. It was a tough, hard fought game. I thought late in the basketball game they seized the moment and the opportunity to really get the tempo to their liking and made some plays. We are fortunate that our guys, much like what they have done all year, did not take an opportunity to hang their head. They were able to dig a little bit deeper and make some big plays down the stretch offensively, and especially on the defensive end of the floor to make sure we got out of here with victory in front of a tremendous crowd.”
On Josh Gray‘s performance…
“I think the caliber of player that he is, Josh played with a big heart tonight. He played extremely confident. The play or two before he shot a ball that didn’t strike the iron. Then, he came back and hit a huge three for us. Then, he put himself in position to get to the free throw line and knocked them down. I thought where he was most effective at was the pressure he was able to put on their point guard and stand down and stand in front of him. He contained him as he was trying to drive to the basket. He was really trying to disrupt what they were doing offensively.”
On grinding out tough victories …
“The good thing when you’re playing teams like this is that it’s a grind game. The games we’ve been in, we’ve been grinding all year. It’s been difficult. I think we’ve been very fortunate because of the outcome of a lot of the games that we’ve been in. Again, we don’t like harping on it but the inexperience and not being a veteran basketball team, to win games like that down the stretch I think our guys have done a tremendous job of having that mindset to play with a sense of urgency and not want to leave out of the gym with a setback. They’ve been able to do that a lot of times this year. I think they’re confident. When the game gets to that point and we’ve got a really good choice, they have a really positive feeling about themselves.”
On the absence of Jalyn Patterson and Elbert Robinson …
“Jalyn got bumped up pretty good in the Vanderbilt game. Elbert has been ill the last few days. He hasn’t been on the floor or able to practice. He’s been sick.”
On playing tough in the paint on offense and defense late in the game …
“I thought we did a great job of getting in the gaps of the zone, of making plays and of trying to get to the rim. We were in the bonus, and we wanted to have an opportunity to try to attack. I thought in the second half, we attacked a couple times getting the ball to Jarell (Martin) once and (Jordan) Mickey another time. Both of them were great with strong finishes at the rim. On the defensive end of the floor, we had to really stay engaged with those guys. We jumped in a zone. They knocked a couple of shots against us late, and we had to jump back into a man (defense). I thought our guys did a great job of changing it up and throwing them out of a rhythm. They got into a little bit of a rhythm going against our zone late. I thought that in man we were able to get them out of it. They hit us a couple of backdoor plays, but with the sense of urgency that our guys were playing with we were able to recover, get big time blocks and knock it off of the glass.”
On Keith Hornsby‘s big block towards the end of the game …
“Unbelievable. When you talk about it being late in the game, him playing the maximum amount of minutes that he played tonight, to still have the heart and drive to be worried about someone else’s man to make that type of play speaks volumes to this team on how they bond and go that extra distance. They’ve really played with that sense of urgency.”
On the team feeding off the crowd …
“I thought that even prior to that, when were able to get back in the game and get a lead, our crowd did a tremendous job of energizing us. I thought that late, when they got the noise and took it to another decibel level, it was huge for us. They gave us energy, which we were looking for. Our guys do a great job of competing and playing for our fans. They are emotional when we have a setback. They do a great job of competing really hard for our fans. I thought our fans reciprocated by giving them that love that they needed towards the end, and that’s the impact that they made on the game.”
GUARD KEITH HORNSBY
On how critical his block was at the end of the game…
“The block was something that we go over in practice. Little plays like that and being in the right position, it simply paid off in the right moment. I am only 6’4, and I have to cherish them when I do get them. I came up big at the right moment.”
On Josh Gray‘s baskets at the end of the game…
“We didn’t plan on him making those clutch baskets at the end of the game. He just took it upon himself, and we obviously have confidence in him to do it. It was so critical for us as a team. “
FORWARD JORDAN MICKEY
On what coach Jones said to the team with only 30 seconds left in the game…
“He was telling us we need to just tough it out. We didn’t have our full roster tonight. We were able to tough it out. We were able to make some timely rebounds and come up with some big buckets.”
On his mindset at the free throw line when the game is on the line…
“It is just like when I am practice. It is just like any regular free throw. I am not really trying to think about it and shoot it like it is any other regular shot.”
GUARD TIM QUARTERMAN
On how South Carolina’s game plan was affecting their offense tonight…
“They are just a really physical team. They try to get into you and try to make you uncomfortable. We played physical too. We work on that every day in practice, and our practices are physical. It was not something we were not used to seeing, and we executed well tonight.”
HEAD COACH FRANK MARTIN
Opening Statement …
“I thought the guys gave great effort again, but unfortunately we can write a book on how to mess up games in the last three minutes.”
On LSU’s performance …
“They are good, they are really good. Johnny (Jones) has a heck of a team. They are very talented and play extremely hard. (Keith) Hornsby and (Josh) Gray, as games progress, they have gotten use to play SEC basketball and with their team. (Tim) Quarterman has made a tremendous jump from his freshman year to his sophomore year. That’s what most guys do. You have those two big guys inside, and you compliment them by playing those guards. Then, you have the making of a real good basketball team.”
GUARD SINDARIUS THORNWELL
On tonight’s game …
“I feel like we let this game go and slip away. We had the momentum just about the whole game. We were either tied or up four or six points. I think we just let it slip. We had a couple of defensive breakdowns and a couple bad offensive possessions that we let get away from us. We blew the game.”