BATON ROUGE – In a Southeastern Conference game with fouls, free throws, stops and starts and just plain craziness in the final two minutes of game time (not actual clock time), the final result was what fans in the Maravich Assembly Center hoped for – an LSU victory Tuesday night over Georgia, 89-85.
The way the final score tallied up may not have been what the Tigers and Coach Johnny Jones were hoping for but it was the win that upped LSU’s record to 13-7 and 6-2 in the SEC, assuring them of no worse than a tie for second place by the close of the remaining game eight play on Wednesday and Saturday.
Kentucky on Wednesday night and South Carolina on Saturday can win to get to 6-2 with LSU by week’s end.
Ben Simmons and Tim Quarterman each scored 22 points to lead LSU, while Antonio Blakeney had 12 and Craig Victor II and Jalyn Patterson scored 11 each. Simmons hit 6-of-12 field goals and after drawing 12 fouls, made 10-of-17 free throws to go with 14 rebounds in getting his 15th double-double of the season.
Quarterman was 4-of-9 from the field with a trey and drew 10 fouls to shoot 13-of-19 at the line with six rebounds and five assists.
Georgia (11-7, 4-4), was paced by J. J. Frazier with 26 points, hitting 10-of-18 from the field with three treys and 3-of-3 at the line. Kenny Gaines had 20 points (7-15 FG, 3 treys, 3-3 FG) and Charles Mann had 19 points on 6-of-10 FGs and 7-of-12 FT.
LSU shot 43.4% for the game, but 12-of-24 in the second half. Georgia was 32-of-63 hitting 50.8 percent for the game. It marked the first time in seven games this year that LSU has won when being outshot from the field and it was the seventh time in 45 games in Johnny Jones‘ tenure that LSU has won when outshot from the field.
LSU out rebounded Georgia 38-36. The Tigers were an amazing 37-of-55 from the free throw line after 33 Georgia fouls, while LSU was called for 22 whistle stoppages resulting in a 15-of-24 night at the stripe for the Bulldogs.
The majority of the 55 total fouls were called in the second half (36).
The Tigers led by as much as nine in the first half of play and had a 22-8 advantage in the paint points, but gave up much of the lead at the end of the half and led just 33-30 at the intermission.
After starting the game 0-7 in the first half and missing their first two attempts of the second half, LSU began to find the rhythm from outside, hitting 6-of-their-last-10 from the arc, and in the end needing all of them. After Georgia tied the game at 39-39 with 16:49 to play, LSU scored the next eight points on treys by Quarterman and Blakeney and then a Keith Hornsby-assisted dunk by Blakeney to make it 47-39 in favor of the Tigers.
But the game’s flow developed into a march to the line and the Tigers were holding their advantage and gradually building the lead from two points, 61-59, with 8:35 to play to 14 points on a Quarterman jumper at 80-66 with 2:27 to go.
From there, things began to happen. Mann made a free throw, LSU missed a trey and Frazier scored to cut it to 11. LSU missed and Gaines had a dunk to cut it to nine, 80-71, with 56 seconds to play.
After two Quarterman charity tosses, Frazier had a layup to cut the game back to nine in favor of LSU and Georgia continued to foul. Blakeney made the back end of two shots and then Frazier hit a three. The Tigers turned the ball over and Mann had a layup and the game was five, 83-78, with 35 seconds to play.
Quarterman made one-of-two free throws and Mann was fouled and made both to make the LSU lead, 84-80, with 28 seconds to play. Quarterman was fouled again and missed both attempts and Frazier hit a three to cut the LSU lead to just one, 84-83, with still 23 seconds to go.
This time Georgia fouled Blakeney and he made both tosses to extend to LSU lead to 86-83. Frazier made a layup to cut the game to 86-85 with 16 seconds left. Hornby was fouled and made the first of two to make it 87-85, giving Georgia the final possession and 13 seconds to play. The Bulldogs elected not to take a three for the win but E’Torrion Wilridge missed his only shot attempt of the night that would have tied the game with less than four seconds to play.
Blakeney was fouled with 0.1 on the clock and made two tosses for the final margin of four.
A crowd of 10,749 watched LSU improve to 13-7 overall and 6-2 in league play.
The Tigers now will step out of conference play along with nine other SEC teams for the SEC/Big 12 Challenge, playing host to No. 1 Oklahoma on Saturday at 4 p.m. on ESPN and broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network.
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LSU vs. Georgia
January 26, 2016
Head Coach Johnny Jones
Opening Statement…
“We knew coming in that it was going to be a hard-fought battle and an exciting game. I didn’t realize that we would make it that exciting toward the end with the way that we played throughout. I thought our guys did a great job of coming out of the gate, playing extremely hard against a very talented team. With the energy that they put in, we tried to go to the bench and rest them. Our bench did not come in and play at the level that we needed it to. Georgia continued to fight. Afterward, it was a battle finishing the first half. We were fortunate to go in with the lead at halftime.
“We came back out and there were runs. Teams have runs. We made ours. The team that they are, they weren’t going to quit. They weren’t going to stop playing. They continued to stay in the game and make plays right there through the very end. After getting a 10, 12-point lead (14 points), we played with too much comfort. We were too loose with the basketball. We are glad that we had an opportunity to correct those things with a victory instead of trying to get them corrected after a setback. Through it all, I thought our guys did a great job of battling, playing well against a very scrappy, tough team that’s leading the league in field goal percentage defense with about 37 (percent) a game. We shot 43 percent tonight, 50 percent in the second half. We gave up too many points to a team that’s averaging around 60-something points a game, giving up 85.”
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
Guard Tim Quarterman
On the game overall…
“It was crazy. I’ve never shot that many free throws in my life in a game. That was the way the referees were calling it tonight. They were calling it tight. I was glad we made enough plays down the stretch to win the game.”
On his thoughts during Georgia’s run…
“We just knew that team wasn’t going to give up. They kept making big plays to put themselves in a position to win the game. We came up with the last stop. I’m proud of my team for pushing through. It shows signs that we are still growing and our chemistry is still building. It was great for our team to get the win in front of our home crowd.”
On how Georgia made a comeback…
“It happened very quickly. Charles (Mann) got into the hole a lot and J.J. (Frazier) got to it a couple of times. I think they got easy baskets at the rim right there because of the way our defense was playing. We didn’t want to foul them and allow them to get easy and ones. We have to play through adversity when the refs are calling the game tight like that. People are going to get easy baskets and go to the free-throw line. We just had adversity in the end but we made enough plays to get the win.”
On how important it was to buckle down on defense at the end…
“We talked about it in the huddle. We didn’t expect the person that shot the ball to shoot the last shot (E’Torrion Wilridge) but that’s how it went. He ended up missing a good shot. We were just glad to get that last stop. That just shows our character that we’ve built from December to now. We went down there and got stops and won the game.”
On getting the start…
“It felt good to go out there starting the game with my teammates to try and get that big push in the beginning. We got out to a big lead. I just tried to start the game with a couple of easy baskets. I want to get my teammates in position where they can score. I thought Ben (Simmons) and Craig (Victor II) did a good job early to go in and make baskets. That opened the floor for the guards.”
Point Forward Ben Simmons
On playing in the post tonight…
“They couldn’t really guard me down low. I had Tim (Quarterman) looking for me as soon as I posted up. They got a lot of good looks but they hurt themselves by fouling me a lot. They sent me to the free-throw line.”
On how it helps him when they (his teammates) make outside shots…
“It helps a lot. They have to go out and play the wings. It opens the floor up a lot to have guys like Tim (Quarterman) and Jalyn (Patterson) making shots.
On the lack of the flow with all the fouls called…
“It was tough. It was a long game and I felt like it went on for a while just because of the stoppage. It’s adversity and we have to learn how to play through it.”
GEORGIA QUOTES
Head Coach Mark Fox
On LSU having most of their points in the paint and free-throw line in the first half, but a good number of points from three-point range in the second half…
“We had to (change something) because every defensive position was ending in a foul, so we went to a couple of different defenses, and we were going to give up some open three-point shots. To their credit, when they got an open three, they made a couple. We had to try and slow the parade to the foul line.”
On Yante Maten fouling out early…
“They did a nice job defending Yante. Give (LSU) some credit for that. They did a nice job defending him. Obviously with foul trouble, he barely plays 20 minutes. We didn’t get a lot of production from him tonight, but he’ll work back, and he’ll be the first one to ask how (he) can get better, and I’m sure he will.”
On the play of Mike Edwards…
“I thought Mike competed really hard tonight. I think he really competed and I thought he did some nice things. He only plays 14 minutes and fouls out, but in those 14 minutes, he did some good things.”