BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s basketball team overcame an eight-point first-half deficit by shooting 70.8 percent from the field in the second half to defeat Ole Miss, 90-81, late Wednesday night at the Maravich Center.
LSU (10-6, 3-1 SEC) held Ole Miss (12-4, 2-2 SEC) scoreless in the final 2:04 while finishing the game on a 7-0 run.
LSU’s Craig Victor II had a team-best 18 points, while Ben Simmons and Antonio Blakeney scored 15 each – 24 combined in the second half. Tim Quarterman made all four of his field goal and free throw attempts to add 14 points, while Keith Hornsby scored 10.
Ole Miss senior guard Stefan Moody was a handful for the Tigers, scoring a game-high 33 points on 10-of-18 shooing including six three pointers. It was the most points scored by an opponent player against the Tigers this season after three players had totaled 31 points.
LSU finished the game shooting 55.6 percent (30-of-54), making LSU 26-2 in the Johnny Jones era when shooting 50 percent or more from the field. LSU was 17-of-24 in the final 20 minutes (70.8%), the fourth time LSU has shot 65 percent or better in the second half this season and the second time over 70 percent in the final 20 minutes.
Ole Miss led the game 19-11 with 12:18 to go in the first half of play but LSU was able to eventually tie the game at 32-32 with 5:03 to go in the first half and trailed by just three, 43-40, at intermission.
Four times in the second half, Ole Miss was able to get the margin back to six points, the last at 10:41 in the contest at 62-56. LSU then went on a 10-2 run to take a 66-64 lead as Quarterman hit a three, Simmons a jumper, Quarterman a layup and then Blakeney was fouled on a three-pointer and made all three free throws for the lead.
The game would be tied at 66, 70 and the eighth and final tie at 76-76 with 4:22 left on a dunk by the Rebel’s Anthony Perez.
After turnovers by both teams, a Simmons steal led to a Blakeney layup to give LSU the lead for good, 78-76, with 3:40 to play. Perez missed a trey attempt and Quarterman fed Victor with a pass for a jumper and a four-point advantage at 80-76, entering the final three minutes. Moody got a layup to cut the game to tie and then the teams traded three-pointers to leave LSU up 83-81 with 2:04 to play.
The Rebels would not score again as Simmons scored on the next possession and then LSU made five-of-six free throws to seal the deal.
Besides Moody’s big night on 10-of-18 shooting overall including 6-of-11 from the arc and 7-of-9 from the free throw line, Ole Miss got 18 points from Rasheed Brooks, 13 from Sebastian Saiz and 10 from Anthony Perez. Ole Miss shot 45.2 percent for the game (28-of-62), 11-of-28 from the arc and 14-of-21 from the line.
The teams combined to make 19 three-points as LSU was 8-of-18 for the game and 22-of-31 from the free throw line.
LSU had 22 assists for its 30 made field goals with Simmons posting seven and Josh Gray, who started the contest, with four. Seven players had assists for LSU. Ole Miss had 14 assists. Both teams had 11 turnovers but LSU had a 21-13 advantage in points off turnovers. LSU had a 35-31 advantage on the boards.
LSU is now in a three way tie for second in the SEC at 3-1 with Arkansas and Kentucky with Texas A&M the lone undefeated team in the league at 4-0. South Carolina is now 2-1 on the year in fifth. Florida, Georgia and Ole Miss are tied for sixth at 2-2.
The two highest scoring teams in the league, Arkansas and LSU, meet on Saturday at the Maravich Center in the SEC Network Saturday Primetime game at 7:30 p.m. The game will also be broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network.
Follow updates on LSU Basketball at www.Facebook.com/LSUBasketball and on Twitter @LSUBasketball.
LSU vs. Ole Miss
January 13, 2015
LSU HEAD COACH QUOTES
Opening Statement…
“What a great game! It was a great bounce-back win for our guys from Saturday. It was a very tough game, and to come out tonight and finish the way that we did there in the end in a hard-fought battle, I’m certainly proud of our guys in the way that they played. We knew it would be a tough game. Ole Miss is a tough team, sitting at 12-3 (entering the game). I thought in one of their setbacks in league play against Kentucky that Kentucky played extremely well at home in the opener to beat them. To see (Ole Miss) go out and beat Memphis at Memphis and to win home games against Georgia and Alabama in the fashion that they did, we knew we were in for a battle tonight. We had foul trouble early on, but I thought our depth showed tonight with our bench. We played 10 guys and all of them made an impact in the game, regardless of the minutes they played. We are excited about the victory and thought we showed a sense of urgency and toughness down the stretch and executed at a high level.”
On LSU shooting 17-of-24 from the field in the second half…
“They did a great job of having patience and sharing the ball. They were able to open the floor up. We utilized our offense when we tried to punch the ball to the side and tried to make sure that we were able to take advantage of them in there. Our perimeter guys were able to step up and knock down some shots. When they collapsed, we were able to kick it back out and knock down some shots. To shoot 70 percent against a very tough defensive basketball team like that tonight especially during the second half required patience and toughness to be able to do that. Our guys were able to do that in the end.”
On Antonio Blakeney‘s performance…
“What’s bigger than that is when you take Antonio (Blakeney) and give it a different look in terms of the starting lineup. He stayed engaged in the game. He came in and played hard on the defensive end of the floor and allowed the flow of the game and the ball to come to him. He hit two huge threes for us. He went 7-for-7 from the FT line. I thought he did a great job down the stretch and being focused. To not sit there and be tense or tight because he came off of the bench, he did a great job of relaxing and making necessary plays.”
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
Guard Tim Quarterman
On what got the team rolling…
“I think we shared the ball a lot and played as a team in the second half. People got their shots and made big shots on our team. It wasn’t just one person. It was a team effort. We went out there and won as a team.”
On how it was to come off the bench…
“It was fun. It was kind of a throwback. It’s not about who starts the game. It’s about who finishes. Coach (Johnny Jones) left me in the end of the game to finish the game. We got the win and that’s all that counts.”
On slowing down Stefan Moody…
“I don’t think we slowed him down at all. He just had a good night. He is a good player. He went out there and made shots. He made tough shots and finished on our bigs. Fortunately we got the win. On nights like that you hope to contain somebody when they get hot. That’s what happened. He hit from 40 feet with a hand in his face. I don’t know what Coach (Jones) would want us to do besides tackle him and we can’t do that.”
“He was carrying them. We figured out that if we could run him off the line and make him go to the hole. That’s what I tried do in the second half. I wanted to run him off the line and get help from our bigs. He missed a couple shot and got a couple of turnovers. We just disrupted what he was doing.”
Point Forward Ben Simmons
On a new starting rotation…
“It was a little bit different and we weren’t used to that. We kind of made plays. As soon as they came back on the court they were ready.”
On the foul trouble in the first half…
“I had a rough start. I wasn’t too worried though. These guys played well the whole game. When you have guys who can dominate like Tim (Quarterman), Antonio (Blakeney) and Craig (Victor) and Jalyn (Patterson) hit some big shots. It’s big for them.”
Forward Craig Victor II
On the balanced scoring…
“It was a good all-around team effort. We moved the ball more. We played as a team and together and the assists showed that. We finished with 22 assists.”
Guard Antonio Blakeney
On the free throws sparking his performance…
“Just seeing the ball go in the basket definitely helped my shot. I wanted to try and knock them down for my team.”
On coming off the bench…
“I definitely felt like it helped to come off the bench. It was definitely different for me because I never really came off the bench in high school or here. I’m just glad I could help come off the bench for the win.”
On the mentality of the game…
“We knew they were going to score and make runs. We really just pushed the ball and tried to take good shots to get the lead back or cut into the lead. That’s what we did.”
OLE MISS HEAD COACH ANDY KENNEDY QUOTES
On what went wrong for Ole Miss tonight against LSU…
“We were way too loose and easy on the defensive end tonight. We could not get stops. Then when we did, we got out-rebounded. We haven’t won a game all year where we got out-rebounded. We have to do a better job in those areas. We have to get (Stefan) Moody some help. (Rasheed) Brooks had another good game. I think he is really helping us. I thought he did some good things for us, especially defensively. We are just so thin in some of the other departments. We need contributions from other guys.”
On the last nine minutes of the first half without Ben Simmons…
“We were up six, then (Jalyn) Patterson hit a big three. Then we wasted away a possession at the half. I was hoping we would be up a little more, but statistically we weren’t winning in any areas. They were outrebounding us, shooting higher from the floor, and higher from the free-throw line. The reality was we weren’t taking advantage of opportunities in the first half. We missed five opportunities in the paint without him (Ben Simmons) in the game. Those are things that come back to haunt you.”
On the back-and-forth ball game tonight against LSU…
“I thought we had some plays we needed to make. I continued to run one play for us to get some pick-and-pop action for our stretch four. We got Tomasz Gielo too loose. We got Anthony Perez too loose. We went 0-for-4. Antonio Blakeney on the other hand, while we support Ben Simmons on the drive, he knocks down a huge shot. Then they really hurt us on the offensive glass. I think second-chance points were what hurt us.”
Ole Miss Player Quotes
G Rasheed Brooks
On playing against LSU….
“They’re talented. Coach said they were one of the most talented teams we play. We stepped out there and saw how long, athletic, and talented they are. We didn’t stay on our feet a lot of the time. We went for pump fakes because with Ben Simmons you have to go for his shot. I think that was a lot of it.”
On offensive confidence…
“I’m trying to get into a rhythm. Just trying to help (Stefan) Moody out and do anything I can do to help us win, but I’ve been playing with a lot more confidence. Coach has been telling me that he needed more from me as far as rebounding, so I’ve been trying to be more aggressive with that.”