BATON ROUGE – The No. 19/21 LSU men’s basketball team powered out to a quick start against Southwest Baptist and never looked back Friday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, scoring a 98-72 win in their only official exhibition game of the preseason.
The Tigers open the 2015-16 season in a week on Friday, Nov. 13, against McNeese State. The game is set for 8 p.m. and will be televised on ESPNU and broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network. Team schedule posters and schedule cards will be given away at the game.
The Tigers scored the first 10 points of the game and led by 24 points, 31-7, after 10 minutes of play. The biggest margin of the first half came at the 8:23 mark when the Tigers jumped out to 31-point leads at 38-7 and 41-10.
In the opening half, LSU shot 51.2 percent from the floor, but was at 60-plus percent for much of the half until several misses late in the first 20 minutes. Jalyn Patterson hit four-of-six treys in the opening 20 minutes to lead LSU with 12 points, while Brandon Sampson also had a good half off the bench with 11 points. Ben Simmons had 10 points, seven rebounds, five assists, three blocks and two steals, playing 17 minutes in the half in which LSU had a 51-27 advantage.
For the game, LSU was 39-of-74 from the field (52.7%) and 10-of-24 (41.7%) from the arc. LSU was also a respectable 10-of-14 from the free throw line (71.4%). LSU has 21 assists to just 11 turnovers with 15 blocked shots and 16 steals as they forced 24 turnovers by SBU and scored 30 points off the miscues.
Five players finished in double figures led by Sampson with 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting including 3 treys. Simmons had a fine overall game in his debut in front of the LSU fans with 17 points with nine rebounds, five assists, no turnovers, six blocks and four steals in 29 minutes.
Antonio Blakeney had a big second half and finished with 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting, while Patterson would finish with 14 points and Josh Gray hit 6-of-8 field goals and finished with 13 points.
Southwest Baptist had two bench players in double figures as Andy Campbell had 13 points in 15 minutes on 4-of-5 shooting from the arc, while Nate Nahimy had 11 points.
Southwest Baptist struggled mightily in the first 20 minutes shooting 28.6 percent (10-of-35), but finished the game at 40 percent after shooting 53.3% in the second half (16-of-30). SBU made nine treys and outrebounded LSU, 44-33, but had the 24 turnovers in the contest.
LSU had a 50-28 advantage in points in the paint and 14-2 in fast break points.
The 10-0 run had a little bit of everything the Tigers may have to offer this year as Patterson took a Simmons pass for a three pointer 29 seconds in, and the after a series of misses by both teams, Tim Quarterman had a jumper to make it 5-0 off another Simmons assist. Quarterman was fouled on the play and made a free throw to make it 6-0 89 seconds in.
Antonio Blakeney got a steal and the first LSU dunk of the night to make it 8-0 and then the improving Elbert Robinson III got his own rebound in side and put the ball back in to make it 10-0 at the 16:28 mark of the first half.
The Division II school from Bolivar, Missouri, playing a Louisiana university for the second straight night after losing to Louisiana Tech in Ruston on Thursday was unable to keep pace with the quicker and more athletic Tigers.
The Bearcats were 11-18 last year under first-year coach Clark Sheehy and revamped pretty much its entire roster. One sidebar of the game was that Ben Simmons‘ brother, Liam, is an assistant coach at SBU. He had previously served as an assistant coach at Nicholls in Thibodaux.
In the second half the Tigers continued to shoot over 50 percent, but so were the Bearcats, providing much closer action, but LSU was able to build the lead to 33 points, 76-43, with 11 minutes to go in the game.
The lead reached 36 the biggest of the night with 8:09 to play in the game. LSU led for 39:31 of the contest, only tied for the first 29 seconds.
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LSU COACH JOHNNY JONES
Opening Statement…
“I thought for our last game in terms of a chance to do our final tune-up prior to the season starting in this exhibition game, I thought we got off to a good start tonight. I thought our guys played well out of the gate, sharing the basketball, shooting and making shots. On the defensive end, I thought we were really locked in, and I thought in the second half because of the lead we had with all of the different combinations we had out there, we weren’t as sharp as we were in the first half. I saw some things we can continue to work on and areas that we can continue to get better. We are excited about the guys we have an opportunity to do it with. I thought the freshmen played well across the board. Some guys came off of the bench and did a good job for us throughout the game.”
On Brandon Sampson‘s night…
“I thought Brandon picked up where he left off in Australia. He was one of our top two or three guys who played extremely well over there in all five games. We know what he is capable of doing. As a freshman to see him doing that early on, shooting the ball, defending hard, playing with the intensity level that he is, it’s really encouraging.
On the pace of play and the tempo of the game…
“To tell you, I thought we settled on 89 for a little while. I thought we were playing well, scoring. We shot 52 in the first half and 54 in the second half. We shot a pretty good clip. We missed some easy scoring opportunities at the basket. We allowed some shots to come off on us and only had 13 offensive rebounds. We should have had more opportunities to get the rebound. I think they out-rebound us by 11 on the glass. We have to make sure we do a better job, but tempo-wise, I thought we were good. In the second half, we got jumped up in the press. I thought it worked to our advantage, made us play fast and quick where we could get the ball and get out of there. We just didn’t convert as much as we would have liked to on the other end of the floor.”
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LSU PLAYER QUOTES
On tonight’s game …
“It felt good to be out there. It was a little different. The rims are a bit different. I was happy with the way we played in the first half. In the second have we didn’t play too well. We know that, so we have a lot of work to do.
On the mood in the locker room at halftime…
“When you’re up by that much, you’re not used to going 100 percent the whole time because you know you’re up. You relax and take your foot off the gas. That’s one thing we don’t need to do. We need to pick it up.”
On playing with freshmen Antonio Blakeney and Brandon Sampson…
“We played well together. Brandon (Sampson) played really well. Antonio (Blakeney) played well. We have a lot of chemistry to build up on.”
On the team’s performance…
“I think we executed on offense pretty well. Our press defense looked pretty good and we rotated well.”
On his play…
“It felt good. Once I saw my shots were falling I just tried to not force it in. I tried to focus on that and tried to facilitate and get other people open shots.”
On taking the court for the first time…
“It felt good. Everyday we’re in practice going against each other and getting better. It felt good to show what we’ve been working on against another team.”
On correcting tonight’s mistakes…
“I’m going to watch film of the team and myself as well. The film doesn’t lie. You see all of the things you did wrong and try to correct it.”
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SBU QUOTES
SBU Head Coach Clark Sheehy
On how exhibition games help prepare the team…
“It helps you see good athleticism, and it helps you see how you have to value the ball and value possessions. We have so many new guys. Their learning curve is so sharp. I thought tonight in the second half, we had more identification of what a good possession for us looks like. Any time you can play against really athletic and talented guys like they have, that’s going to help you identify what your strengths are.”
On preparing his team to play LSU F Ben Simmons…
“I think the thing about him (Simmons) that is so impressive to me is his versatility. He’s big. He’s strong. He can pass, and he can rebound. He plays multiple positions. He got his hands on tons of basketballs when we were going to finish. There were times when I thought we were going to finish. And the next thing I know, he’s knocking the ball away, and they are starting their fast break. For a freshman in college, he has a very mature basketball game. He’s so versatile in what he does. I had the opportunity and coached against Texas. We played against (San Antonio Spurs power forward) LaMarcus Aldridge in his first college game. I thought Ben (Simmons) was much more complete and polished and was a real dominant force.”
On preparing for the regular season…
“We’ve got to get a lot better. We’re turning it over too much. We gave too many open, clean shots. LSU did a pretty good job of finding guys and hitting open shots. I think our defense has to get tighter and not give open shots.”
Forward Andy Campbell
On coming off the bench to become the team’s leading scorer…
“A huge part of anything I did on the court was my teammates. I caught some great screens and my teammates got me wide open. That’s how our offense works. We work each other, and we help each other out. Whoever is open is going to step up. Anyone in my position would have hit the shots as well.”
On preparing for this game on a quick turnaround…
“No doubt, it was difficult. It’s helpful for us because we are going to have to do the same thing next week in our first games.”
On LSU’s performance…
“They just played so hard. They hit shots. We expected them to be dominant like they were. I’m just thankful for the opportunity to get to play them. It will make us better for the year. They are super athletic. They did what they were supposed to.”
Guard Marley Biyendolo
On reuniting with LSU Forward Ben Simmons…
“It was a great opportunity for me. I grew up playing with Ben (Simmons) when I was young. I was very excited coming into this game and going up against him and just seeing how we go against each other again. That was obviously a huge thing for me and a couple of the other Australian guys on the team.”
On Simmons performance…
“I was very impressed. But, I wasn’t surprised with his performance. I’ve been watching him over these years and seeing how well he’s doing. I knew he would come out and be a pretty dominant force out there. It was a good game by him.”