BATON ROUGE – Finding a way to win when not playing your best is one of those sports clichés that is repeated way too often.
Here it is again. LSU found a way to win Saturday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center over Arkansas, 76-74, on a follow layup by Craig Victor II with 4.2 seconds to play after an LSU missed three-pointer.
The win makes LSU 4-1 in the Southeastern Conference and 11-6 overall, while Arkansas falls to 3-2 in the league and 9-8 overall. LSU is now tied for second with South Carolina at 4-1 and the Tigers will travel to nationally-ranked Texas A&M (5-0 in league) for an 8 p.m. game on Tuesday on ESPN and the LSU Sports Radio Network.
LSU overcame a five-point deficit in the final seven minutes behind the play of Victor and Ben Simmons. Victor finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds, while Simmons also had a double double with 16 points and 18 rebounds. Josh Gray had 15 points, while Antonio Blakeney added 10 for the Tigers.
Arkansas was led by Anthlon Bell, who had a game-high 19 points. The Hogs shot 45 percent (30 of 66) for the game, while LSU was 27-of-58 shooting for 47 percent. But for the 11th time in 17 games, LSU shot at least 50 percent in the second half (15-of-30) and LSU has won 10 of those 11 times.
The Razorbacks led exclusively for the final 8:39 of the first half after the Tigers had built as much as a six point lead on two occasions in the opening 10 minutes. The Tigers led, 19-16, on a Blakeney three with 9:31 to go in the opening half, but Anton Beard came down and tied the game with a three and then made a jumper to give the Razorbacks a 21-19 lead.
Anthlon Bell got a layup to make it 23-19 and Arkansas would lead by as much as seven at 38-31 with 2:40 in the first half when Bell made a three. The Tigers got a layup by Gray and a three from Blakeney late and Arkansas led, 40-36, at the half.
In the opening 20 minutes, Arkansas was 15-of-35 from the field with 5 treys and 5-of-8 from the stripe, while LSU was 12-of-28 with 3 treys, but just 9-of-18 from the charity stripe leaving several points off the boards.
LSU with Simmons and Victor getting buckets tied the game at 40-40, 56 seconds into the half, the first of six ties in the first nine minutes of the final 20.
But Arkansas had the answer and after the game was tied at 56-56, the Razorbacks began to pull away a bit, opening a five-point advantage at 63-58 with 7:27 to play and 65-60 with 6:27 to go. But LSU fought back to tie the game on a three-point play by Simmons with 4:31 to go (67-67) after the teams traded points to go to 69-69, Blakeney and Simmons had layups with a Simmons free throw to make it 74-69 with three minutes to play, completing a 14-4 LSU run.
But the Tigers couldn’t get the nail driving in that would end the contest at that point. Dusty Hannahs would hit a three to cut it 74-72 with 2:26 to go and after Victor missed a shot, the teams traded turnovers and Arkansas’ Jabril Durham tried for the tying bucket but his shot was missed by Victor with 1:29 to play.
LSU got the rebound and after a timeout, Blakeney missed a jumper and Arkansas rebounded. Beard would on the possession get a layup that tied the game and with a foul on top of that by Simmons, Beard went to the line shooting for the lead with 37 seconds left.
Beard missed the shot and in the battle for the rebound the ball was out-of-bounds and awarded to LSU. The officials, by rule, can and did go to the monitor and overturned the call and gave it back to Arkansas with 35 seconds left.
On the inbounds, Blakeney was able to get a steal and give LSU the final possession that resulted in Victor muscling through for his sixth offensive rebound of the night off the Blakeney miss for the winning points. A final Arkansas shot was short and LSU won for the 10th time in 11 starts at home.
Both teams, in the battle of the top scoring teams in the league, had 38 points in the paints and LSU had a 19-13 advantage in points off turnovers. LSU also had a 15-10 advantage in second chance points.
The paid attendance for the contest was the largest of the season, 13,610, the third largest attendance in the building since the renovation prior to the 2005-06 season.
In the last three games, Gray is 10-of-12 from the field (2-of-2 at Florida, 2-of-2 vs. Ole Miss and 6-of-8 against Texas A&M).
Simmons had his 13th double double of the year, leading the SEC and tops among all Division I freshman. For Victor, it was his second of the SEC season for the Tigers.
LSU HEAD COACH QUOTES
Head Coach Johnny Jones
Opening Statement…
“We knew coming into the night that it would be a really tough basketball game against one of the teams that is playing extremely well in our league. They’re actually leading the league in points per game. We knew it would be a hard, defensive battle. That it was. I thought our guys did a great job of competing at a great level. I told them some nights, especially tonight, I didn’t think we hit on all cylinders, didn’t think we played our best, but we were able to get a victory against a very tough opponent. When that happens that’s a great sign of a team growing to be able to win. We go back to the drawing board and give ourselves an opportunity to get better before our next outing. I am pleased with the effort, pleased with the closing—the big rebounding by Craig Victor II and a putback and then, three good defensive possessions at the end to seal the victory. I’m really appreciative of a tremendous crowd again out there tonight. They lifted our guys and gave us an edge and the energy that we needed to close the game out in the fashion that we did.”
On Arkansas…
“They’re an excellent basketball team. They are great shooters across the board. They have two or three guys averaging over 40 percent from the three-point line, which is huge. They shot the ball extremely well versus a Missouri team, beating them bys nearly 50 points … They are an excellent shooting team and a very confident basketball group. I thought our guys played well from the beginning in the first half. The great team that they are, they started making some shots in the first half and wound up with the four-point lead at the half, but our guys came back out and did more of the same. They got stops, and that’s what it took. They didn’t get to their average tonight. I think they average about 84 points a game. They wound up getting 74, holding them about 10 points below their average. That’s a good night for us when you are playing a high volume shooting team, a group that plays extremely fast and is a high-tempo team.”
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
On his personal performance tonight against Arkansas…
“Tonight was pretty rough for me personally. I am just happy my team won. I struggled a little bit getting to the rim and getting calls. It was one of those games.”
On the difference between the first and second half…
“I just started attacking more and being more aggressive.”
On his winning shot with four seconds left in the game…
“I was pretty much trying to get in position to get an offensive rebound. The ball fell in my lap and was able to make it.”
On his overall thought on tonight’s game against Arkansas…
“I felt like we could have played better as a team. That wasn’t our best game this season. We are fortunate we were able to pull off the win.”
On his personal performance tonight against Arkansas…
“First off, I want to give all the glory to God for allowing me to come out and perform the way I did. They like to play fast and like to press. I am a fast guard. I like to penetrate the lane, kick out and make my team better. I just had a great night.”
On getting in a rhythm during the second half…
“Coach (Johnny Jones) came in at halftime and told us what we needed to do. We started moving the ball to the side and made them play defense. Toward the end of the clock, they gave up. That’s when we started hitting the lanes. It worked out for us. It was just in the game plan at halftime.”
On his back to back three pointers in the second half…
“Coach (Johnny Jones) told us in half time to keep shooting. The guards are going to throw down to the big guys, and when they kick it back out, knock it down. I just tried to stay confident and make shots.”
ARKANSAS HEAD COACH QUOTES
Head Coach Mike Anderson
His overall thoughts of the game…
“I thought our effort was there, I thought our execution wasn’t there at the end. We came in with a game plan and stuck to it. We were in the position to steal one, unfortunately we had some mishaps whether it be a turnover or an offensive rebound. That was big going down the stretch. They shot a bunch of free throws, we didn’t. We did a good job of attacking the basket. If you told me we’d have the ball in a tie game with 35 seconds left and a chance to steal one, I’d take it. We’d make them take tough shots but then we wouldn’t rebound so credit to those guys. They had some guys that made plays for them. (Craig) Victor made plays for them, (Ben) Simmons made plays for them. (Antonio) Blakeney had a huge steal for them at the end. ”
On what his game plan was going into the game…..
“I thought we wanted to come in and open up the floor. We wanted to get Moses (Kingsley) to be the guy inside we can go to because I knew they were going to extend on the shooters. I thought the floor was open. We were trying to not be predictable on defense. They were ready for the press. We wanted to make sure Simmons worked for everything he got and I thought we did that.”
On how he felt about the last shot…
“I thought he made a good play to try and get it there on time. I wasn’t against that last shot we made, but my feeling is that we shouldn’t have been in that position in the first place. We wanted to get a shot up with about three seconds to give us a shot at a tip after a miss. Credit them for their defense, and us for not making the plays. I love the fight in our guys. This team grew a little bit more tonight.”
On the three-point play for Anton Beard against Ben Simmons…
“Oh yeah, we needed to put the ball in his hands. We wanted to make sure whoever Ben was guarding that he had to honor that guy. Anton (Beard) made a good move. He made a play. That’s what players are supposed to do, make plays.”
ARKANSAS PLAYER QUOTES
G Anthlon Bell
On losing a close game…
“They did what they were supposed to do and protect the home court. Down the stretch we’ve got to be stronger with the ball, cut down on turnovers and just make plays.”
On the inbounds play with 30 seconds left…
“Just right then, I know I have to be stronger with the ball. I could say he fouled me, say I didn’t see him, but it just falls on I have to be stronger with the ball coming down the stretch in that situation.”
On LSU’s 31 free throws…
“It just showed they were just attacking, they were just going to the boards, and we just know that coming down the stretch we have to cut down on that and try to keep it in front of us.”
On getting back into the game in the first half…
“We just stayed with it and locked down on defense trying to get easy-transition buckets. Even in the half court, just trying to move the ball around and get easy shots and make the defense work.”
On the locker room atmosphere after the game…
“You know, it hurts. You come in and try to get a good road win against a good quality team. But we know the sun is going to rise, we have another game coming up and we just have to stay with it and get focused for the next one.”