BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s basketball team opened the second half of conference play with as Coach Johnny Jones called it a “great start at 1-0” as the Tigers remained unbeaten at home in SEC play with an 88-77 win over Mississippi State before an announced crowd of 13,123 Saturday.
The Tigers are now 15-8 overall and 8-2 in the Southeastern Conference and one game up over Texas A&M, Kentucky and Wednesday’s opponent South Carolina at 7-3.
LSU did not have an easy time of it against the 9-13, 2-8 Bulldogs as Mississippi State came out firing from all points against the sluggish starting Tigers, building a quick 8-0 lead before Ben Simmons finally scored to cut the game to 8-2 with 17:53 to play.
The State lead built to 10 at 14-4 with 14:42 to play on a layup by Craig Sword and to 12 at 20-8 with 13:17 to go on a Fred Thomas trey. Tim Quarterman had a jumper blocked on the other end and an LSU foul led to two free throws by Thomas that gave Mississippi State a 22-8 lead with 12:45 to go in the first half.
But LSU began to find its game and went on a 10-1 run to cut the lead to 23-18 with 10:23 to go in the first 20 minutes. Craig Victor II had a free throw, Antonio Blakeney hit back-to-back treys and then Keith Hornsby hit a three of his own.
The teams traded buckets and then LSU cut the lead to one on two Simmons free throws and then State pushed the lead to seven before taking its first lead at 34-33 on a dunk by Victor with 3:48 to play. Gavin Ware scored on a jumper to make it 35-34 State with 3:24 to play.
Hornsby would give LSU the lead for good with 2:50 to play in the half on a jumper as LSU scored the nine points of the half to go to the break up, 43-35. LSU outscored Mississippi State from the Bulldogs last 14-point advantage to the end of the half, 35-13.
The Tigers continued to apply the pressure in the second half, opening up a double digit lead and expanding it to 20 at 67-47 on a jumper by Blakeney at the 11:28 mark. State tried to rally as LSU relaxed briefly but the Bulldogs were never able to get within 11 points three times, including the final margin.
Blakeney off the bench had the best game of his college career with 31 points on 11-of-17 shooting, including 4-of-8 three-pointers and 5-of-6 from the field with seven rebounds, two assists and no turnovers on 34 minutes of play. Blakeney had scored 22 points twice early in the season from a starting position.
Hornsby also was hitting well, getting 9-of-17 field goals, including 5-of-10 from the arc including 2-of-2 free throws for 25 points with four rebounds, five assists and just one turnover in 28 minutes. Simmons hit 7-of-11 field goal attempts to finish with 16 points, nine rebounds and seven assists to go with two blocks and three steals.
The Bulldogs had five players in double figures with very balanced scoring as Ware had 14 points with Quinndary Weatherspoon, Malik Newman and Craig Sword each scoring 12 points. Weatherspoon had eight rebounds, while Newman had 5 assists. Thomas had 10 points.
For the second straight game the Tigers would shoot over 60 percent in the second half, leading to an over 50 percent night from the field. LSU was 19-of-29 in the second half (65.5%) and 52.5 percent for the game (32-of-61). The Tigers hit 10 three-pointers (10-of-22) for 45.5% and had 25 assists for 32 made buckets.
State shot 43.9 percent from the field for the game (29-of-66), but only shot 38.2 percent overall in the first 20 minutes when they built the lead but were unable to stay with the Tigers. For the game, Mississippi State hit 7-of-23 three-pointers (30.4%).
LSU had a 32-28 advantage in the points in the paint and actually lost the battle of points off turnovers as State had 11 points off eight LSU miscues while the Tigers had nine off the 10 State turnovers.
Ironically, Blakeney had 31-of-the-32 points off the bench LSU had with Aaron Epps getting a free throw.
The Tigers will be traveling to Columbia, South Carolina, on Fat Tuesday in preparation for Wednesday’s 6 p.m. CT game with the South Carolina Gamecocks at the Colonial Life Center. The game will be televised on ESPN2 and broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network. Prior to leaving Coach Johnny Jones will host a special Mardi Gras edition Tuesday of the Tipoff Luncheon presented by Hub International at L’Auberge Casino and Hotel at noon with LSU Sports Radio Network and former Tiger Ricky Blanton as the guest speaker.
LSU’s next home game is Saturday at noon against Texas A&M. Tickets are available at LSUtix.net.
Follow LSU Basketball updates at www.Facebook.com/LSUBasketball and on Twitter @LSUBasketball.
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POSTGAME QUOTES
Head Coach Johnny Jones
Opening Statement…
“We knew tonight would be a tough basketball game for us. Mississippi State has done a great job all year, playing extremely hard. Several of their games against the top competition in our league have come down to the last two possessions of the game when they’ve had setbacks, be it via Florida, Kentucky and other places that they’ve played. The Texas A&M game was a closely contested game as well. We knew that going in. They got off to a great start, but I have to credit our team for staying the course, making plays and settling down as the game played out, finishing strong there in the first half. Coming out early in the second half, gaining momentum and continuing to play the game out, we had several positive things from our entire team. I am really proud of the way that Keith Hornsby and Antonio Blakeney stepped up, made big plays and big shots for us tonight. It was really needed to stay with the type of lead that we needed against a team that was very capable of making plays on the offensive end of the floor. We are excited about the victory, excited about where we are sitting right now.”
On coming back from the 14-point deficit in the first half…
“We just needed to get stops. You can’t get down like that and start trading baskets with a team. The last thing you want to do is put yourself in a situation where teams are continuing to gain confidence against you. Once they got their lead, they got comfortable; they got in a rhythm. We had to try to take that away. We had a little bit of defensive coverage that we were supposed to do, and we didn’t do that early. They made us pay. We made a couple of adjustments. We are excited we got the stops we needed and executed on the offensive end.”
On having sole possession of first place in the SEC after improving to 8-2…
“We are excited about the way that we played. We were sitting there at 7-2 after the first nine games in conference play. We are getting off to a great start at 1-0 in the second part of conference…We are sitting in first place right now. That’s huge with the number of games we played. We are 10 games in and sitting atop the lead. We are excited about that. Our approach has to remain the same that we are taking it one game at a time and to really be able to enjoy the journey like we would like to at the end. We feel that we have grown from the last game. We feel like we got better tonight in the game against a very good team.”
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LSU PLAYER QUOTES
Guard Antonio Blakeney
On his night…
“It really came from all of our teammates making the right play. It happened to be me and Keith (Hornsby) for the open shot and we just knocked them down.”
On feeling more comfortable tonight…
“Lately I’ve been feeling pretty comfortable. Tonight I just had more opportunities and I tried my best to make them.”
On what it means personally to have a good game…
“It means a lot to have a good game and help my team. I’m just trying to help my team.”
On his teammates having faith in him…
“It means a lot. Not only Jalyn (Patterson) but my whole team has a lot of faith in my shooting and scoring ability. It means a lot when my teammates believe in me.”
Guard Keith Hornsby
On the beginning of the game…
“We came out sluggish. I don’t know why necessarily. We just had to figure out how we could be effective against their defense. We finished in the way we wanted to and the way we’ve come to learn through SEC play. ”
On feeling good in warmups…
“The funny thing is I didn’t really feel that well. I wasn’t making as many shots as I normally do. I know it’s all a mental thing. If you get it going in the game then you’re good to go.”
On what it means to be first in the SEC…
“It’s a huge week for us next week. It’s a defining week. You never know what can happen. The SEC is such a tough league. Anybody can win on any night. The way we are going, I like it. We have to be consistent.”
On Antonio’s performance…
“Am I surprised by what he did? Heck no. He’s a really confident basketball player and if he’s going then he’s really dangerous. He got great opportunities tonight and took advantage of them. It can happen on any night.”
On the first timeout so early in the game…
“It was a weird kind of beginning to the game. I don’t know why we came out sluggish. I can’t really define it and it just happened. That’s not what we want to do. He (LSU Head Coach Johnny Jones) had to call a timeout to jack us up and get us energized.”
Point Forward Ben Simmons
On this being a different type of game for him…
“I was just taking what they gave me. These guys (Hornsby and Blakeney) were open. I was able to find them on the floor. They were doing what they needed to do and it really opened up the floor for me. If you looked, the lanes were wide open.”
On the difference in his game when his teammates make shots…
“It’s a lot different for me. I’m able to post up. I’m not looking to score straightaway but looking at my options whether it’s taking it to the rim or finding the guys that are open. When the start hitting shots, it’s hard for anybody to really guard us.”
On what happens when his teammates make shots…
“When they start hitting shots, everyone kind of locks into them and forgets about me. I try to make them remember.”
On the run the last few weeks…
“I think we are getting better every day and improving on finishing games out. We’ve been playing the full 40 minutes. We have really come together and ultimately win games. We aren’t worrying about individual stats. We are just trying to win.”
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MISSISSIPPI STATE HEAD COACH BEN HOWLAND
Opening Statement…
“Disappointed in tonight’s loss. I thought our start to the game was great. I was excited about how we came out. Obviously, the foul trouble really hurt us because we were short a guy. Before the game, I didn’t know for sure I.J. (Ready) could go until warmups. I found out literally when they were announcing the starters. That was a tough break. (Ben) Simmons was spectacular. We got hurt by the three point shot big time by both (Antonio) Blakeney and (Keith) Hornsby. They really shot the ball well. Simmons did a great job distributing the ball with seven assists. We have to come back now. We are hoping to get I.J. back. We will have a good practice Monday and get ready for Arkansas.”
On their fast start in the first half and falling behind in the second half…
“It really hurt us that we were short a guy. All of sudden, they start scoring against our zone and initially causing problems. We couldn’t go back to man because we were going to get in foul trouble worse. Travis Daniels ended up getting his third foul in the first half. Craig Sword had two. We put him back in telling him he couldn’t get his third, which he ended up getting. It was really unfortunate. Malik (Newman) had two early fouls. That really hurt us there. I was trying to make sure he didn’t get a third foul. Having that one guy we have counted on all year and not being able to go, impacted our ability to stay man to man. We needed to come back out in it. At one point we did something we haven’t done all year. We had (Johnny) Zuppardo, (Aric) Holman and Gavin Ware in the game at the same time. We would never do that on a normal basis. Fred (Thomas) and Quinndary (Weatherspoon) were the other two guys.”
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Mississippi State Player Quotes:
Forward Gavin Ware
On not being able to build on hot start …
“We did get off to a really good start. We just started going away from what we were doing at first. Everybody started jacking up unnecessary shots and it started with me. We just have to learn how to keep a lead and keep pressing through.”
On playing without I.J. Ready …
“It was a pretty big deal not having that quickness and that ability to pull up at the free-throw line and give us the two points we needed. I wish him well and hope he comes back stronger than before.”
On where Mississippi State is mentally …
“Right now we’re a little on the low self-esteem side. We’re going to continue to work each and every day and get ready for Arkansas. I can’t say too much about that because I don’t know about other guys thought process, but I know that I will do anything to help my team win some games.”