BATON ROUGE — Alabama’s Retin Obasohan scored 35 points to hand a cold-shooting LSU men’s basketball team a 76-69 loss on Wednesday night at the Maravich Center.
LSU (16-10, 9-4 SEC) managed only 38.6 percent shooting (22 of 57) from the field and 57.1 percent from the free-throw line (20 of 35).
With the game tied at 62-62 with 3:57 to play, Alabama (16-9, 7-6 SEC) went on a 10-2 run to help avenge a Jan. 23 two-point loss to the Tigers in Tuscaloosa.
The Tigers were led by Craig Victor II, who had 21 points on 7-of-13 shooting and 7-of-8 from the free-throw line. Ben Simmons, who became the fourth-fastest Tiger to 500 points, scored 20 and had 10 rebounds, but the freshman made only 10-of-19 free throws. Keith Hornsby was 4-of-8 from three point range and finished with 18 points.
LSU sets off on a two-game road swing starting Saturday at 4:30 p.m. CT against Tennessee in Knoxville. The game will be televised by ESPNU and aired on the LSU Sports Radio Network starting at 4 p.m.
Obasohan, a senior from Belgium, led Alabama in scoring in eighth time in nine games, making 11-of-18 from the field and all 11 of his free throws. Guard Justin Coleman added 21 points with five three pointers, while Arthur Edwards made four three pointers to score 12.
Alabama made 11-of-33 three pointers and shot 46.3 percent from the field (25 of 54).
The Tigers got off to a shaky start, making only 1-of-5 shots while Victor and Simmons each committed fouls on the offensive end in the opening minutes.
Hornsby settled LSU with a three pointer and a transition basket off a steal to force an Alabama timeout leading 11-8 with 14:19 to play in the half.
After a three-pointer by Alabama’s Justin Coleman tied the game at 11-11, LSU rolled off six-straight points while the Tide was held scoreless for more than four minutes. Alabama rallied to tie the game at 19-19 with three pointers by Authur Edwards and Coleman
Hornsby answered with a three and Jalyn Patterson converted a Simmons steal into a layup to give the LSU a 24-19 advantage. The Tigers pushed the margin to seven with 90 seconds left in the half on consecutive baskets by Victor and a Simmons jumper and led 36-31 at halftime.
Alabama came out of the lockerroom with five-straight points to tie the game at 36-36 before LSU responded with a 10-2 run to lead by eight, 46-38.
However, the Crimson Tide kept firing in three pointers to gain their first lead since the opening minutes, 48-47, with 14:29 remaining.
LSU used aggressive drives into the paint that resulted in six-consecutive free throws, a 53-51 lead and the double bonus with 12 minutes to play.
The teams traded the lead over the next eight minutes before a 10-2 Bama run ended the Tigers hopes for victory.
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LSU vs. Alabama
February 17, 2016
LSU HEAD COACH QUOTES
Head Coach Johnny Jones
Opening Statement…
“It was a great opportunity for us tonight, and we are certainly disappointed in the end result. You certainly have to credit Alabama. They did an excellent job of playing well throughout, and in an excellent second half, they executed in making plays and knocking down shots there. They did a great job defensively, as well. We failed to execute in several areas tonight, mainly at the free throw line. We didn’t do a great job of blocking out. We shot a low percentage on some great fast-break opportunities, maybe 5-of-16 in the first half. We also lost the war on the boards tonight, an area that is really important to us. That led to a setback for us against a team that played extremely well. (Retin) Obasohan made big plays, finishing with 35 points. As a team, we did not do a great job as a team or individuals, stepping up and accepting the challenge of making sure that you’re getting stops against a very good, solid basketball player. (Riley) Norris did a great job of getting 16 rebounds, five offensive rebounds and a few of those rebounds late. It really hurt us. They made plays tonight, and we failed to do that only shooting 57 percent from the line and 38 percent for the game. It’s very difficult to do that only having five turnovers and giving yourself ample opportunities.”
On Alabama’s 13-1 run in the second half…
“They made some big plays. They hit a couple of big threes. We failed to really locate guys. The three certainly hurt us there on the four-point play. A high-hand, you just have to stand in front of those guys making plays, and they made some huge plays. We failed to execute at the level we needed to make plays. We missed a lot of shots around the rim, as well, be it layups or easy shots. You can’t do that against a good basketball team.”
On the poor free throw shooting…
“We missed 15 free throws at home. When you get to the line 35 times and you miss 15 of them…We had a lead there that I thought if we could’ve executed at the free throw line and extended our lead, it puts more pressure on them. We actually gave them opportunities because we missed free throws, and they would go down and get shots. That was big. Anytime you fail to score like that and they go back and score, we can’t play that way because it’s a lack of execution there.”
On defending Retin Obasohan…
“We could have done a better job of containing him when he had the ball. The post guys in screen moves just have to make sure that we do a great job of walling him. It has to be a foot race of guards getting back to him. Just stay down, stay in front, make him play up over the top. We had fouls in the first half, and we played passive, especially our post guys of not trying to contain, not necessarily fouling him. We could have done a better job containing him and making him play up over the top, but we failed to try to defend him at all. You can’t play like that against teams that are attacking.”
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
Point Forward Ben Simmons
On Alabama’s defensive play against him and getting to the free-throw line…
“I was trying to get to the line. I wasn’t able to convert all of my free throws. The refs are calling fouls so I was just going at them.”
On free-throw shooting individually and as a team…
“It was just one of those nights (for me). For me it’s a mental thing. I need to concentrate a little bit more when I get to the line, take my time and stop rushing my free throws. We got a lot of attempts. We obviously didn’t convert them, but that’s game right there, free throws. ”
Guard Keith Hornsby
On “giving away the game”…
In some ways, yes, but in other ways they shot incredibly well and that’s really the only way that I say that we didn’t (give the game away). We gave up too many offensive rebounds, missed free throws, just little things that hurt us and they played really well.
On Alabama’s three-point shooting…
“Well, if any SEC player has an open three, like a guard that can make it, they’re probably going to shoot it. We knew that they did have shooters, but really their main one’s didn’t hurt us as much tonight. (Riley) Norris had an off-shooting night. It was (Justin) Coleman, I don’t even think he missed, but he was a 25% three-point shooter coming in, I think. That just tells you that everybody can play.
On whether or not Alabama was able to dictate the pace of the game…
“Not really. I don’t think so. I think there’s so many stopages in the play, so many foul calls. They (Alabama) just did a good job of getting to their stuff and taking advantage of weaknesses that they thought we had. The pace though, I don’t think it was dictated by them.
On team’s free-throw shooting…
We’re perfectly capable of making the free throws, as you say against Texas A&M. It’s good that we’re getting to the line as much as we are. We just have to make them, and that can make or break the game for you.”
Forward Craig Victor II
On second half foul trouble…
“It limited me. It limited me a lot. Some of the calls, I think, weren’t fouls, but at the same time, that’s the refs job, to call fouls and make sure the game is going how it’s supposed to so I really can’t comment on that. All I know is that they (Alabama) played better down the stretch.”
On whether or not Alabama was able to dictate the pace of the game…
“It most definitely wasn’t dictated by them. They had 14 turnovers, so we just have to capitalize.”
ALABAMA HEAD COACH QUOTES
Head Coach Avery Johnson
Opening Statement…
“Unbelievable victory for us tonight on the road against a team that’s obviously been at the top of the SEC. A terrific team led by a young man, Ben Simmons, who is tough to cover. But we hung in there and I felt good about where we were at halftime, only being down by five. Our energy wasn’t where it should have been and our concentration, but recently we’ve become a pretty good second-half team, which blows my mind. We seem to get better and better as the game wears on. We had great sustainable energy in the second half, focus, attention to detail. Craig Victor got away from us a little bit in the first half so we made some adjustments on him in the second half and did a much better job. Overall, a great team victory. It’s one game; I know that sounds like a cliché, but for our team, when we win it’s a celebration. Coming into this season, we didn’t know what we were dealing with. I’m happy for our team and happy for this young man Retin Obasohan. He looked like one of the best players in the country and he’s definitely one of the most-improved players in college basketball.”
On closing out close games…
“Dating back to when we first started practicing, some of the end-of-game situations that we worked on—because there was not a game in sight—they weren’t really into it. So just trying to train them in terms of how the last three to five minutes are critical on both ends of the floor could help us maybe win a few games we’re not supposed to win. Now when we get to those situations in practice, they’re salivating for it. They’re focused. And we’re seeing it pay dividends for us.”
On becoming a better second-half team…
“We’ve come a long way. We don’t have four pros on our team. The way we get better and stronger is pretty exciting. When we first got together, I didn’t know that was going to be our M.O. I thought maybe we would try to get off to a good start on teams and in the second half our talent level and experience, maybe those kinds of games will get away from us. And some of them have gotten away from us. But at home against LSU we had a great opportunity. Retin (Obasohan) goes in and has a decent look at a layup and we have a couple guys open that don’t finish. But fortunately tonight we finished the game, and that’s what we’ve done our last two games. We’ve finished both of our games on the road and that’s pretty exciting for our team.”
ALABAMA PLAYER QUOTES
Guard Retin Obasohan
On if there was a revenge factor in today’s game…
“No not really. Just like Coach (Avery Johnson) said we want to take every game for what it is. We just wanted to come here with the belief that we could win. Our biggest thing was regardless of what adversity we faced or what the scoreboard says, we were going to keep that belief.”
On if he knew he had set a new career high in points…
“I mean, I’ll look at the scoreboard from time to time just to see time and score, but I play to win. How much I score doesn’t matter to me as long as our team scores more points than they do. That’s the biggest thing I wanted to do for my guys and I’m happy we got the win.”
On why he was so assertive shooting the ball…
“I was just playing my game. The thing with our team is we have great talent, guard play and bigs, and that makes it hard for teams to matchup. We have wonderful shooters on the perimeter and we have bigs who can finish above the rim. We play off of each other and my teammates opened up creases that I was able to take advantage of.”