ORLANDO, Florida – The No. 19 LSU Tiger basketball team looks to rebound from a last-second semifinal loss to No. 14 Florida State on Friday when it face Oklahoma State in the third place game of the AdvoCare Classic Sunday at HP Field House at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Disney World.
Tip is set for just after 4 p.m. EST (3 p.m. CST) with the game televised by ESPN2 and broadcast on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network (Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge).
This will be the fifth meeting between the Tigers and the Cowboys and all five games have come on neutral courts. The series is tied at 2-2 with the last meeting an OSU win in the Maui Classic in 2007. LSU’s two wins came in New Orleans in 1993 and 1999.
LSU fought hard but couldn’t hold the advantage late in the game against the Seminoles in the semifinals on Friday as Florida State tied the game in the final seconds on a layup. LSU rallied from five and three points in the overtime with Tremont Waters making three free throws with 11 seconds left to tie the game at 76-76.
But Florida State had the final possession and was able to get a three-point shot from the deep corner to go down with 0.5 to play as the ball hit the side rim, bounced up, hit the rim and spun backwards into the goal.
Junior Skylar Mays had a big game for LSU in the loss with 19 points and four rebounds, equaling his season high, with freshman Ja’vonte Smart also equaling his season high of 16 points to go with eight assists. Freshman Naz Reid added 12 points and Waters had 11 points.
LSU shot 51.9% for the game and for the third straight game held an opponent below 40 percent from the field (38.2%), but FSU had 24 more shots than the Tigers and had a 22-4 advantage on the offensive boards over LSU.
The game marked the end of a 16-game winning streak of LSU winning when it shot over 50 percent and marked the first time in the Will Wade era the Tigers have not won when leading entering the final 10 minutes.
Oklahoma State (3-2) is led by Cameron McGriff averaging 14.6 points a game and also in double figures is Thomas Dziagwa (13.6 ppg), Mike Cunningham (11.5) and Lindy Waters (11.0). Cunningham is a graduate transfer who made his first appearance in this tournament after missing the first three games because of an injury.
OSU defeated Memphis, 84-64, in the opening round of the AdvoCare Invitational and lost to Villanova in their semifinal on Friday, 77-58.
LSU met as a team on Saturday before Coach Wade allowed the team to go to the Disney World complex for a few hours. The team was scheduled to practice late Saturday afternoon to go over the scouting report for Sunday’s game.
The complete schedule for Sunday at the tournament is as follows: Canisius and UAB will meet for seventh place at 10:30 a.m. EST on ESPNU with the Villanova-FSU game for the championship to follow at 1 p.m. EST. After the Oklahoma State-LSU game will be the fifth place game to conclude the tournament with Memphis and Charleston meeting at 6:30 p.m. EST.
LSU’s next home game will be on Saturday, Dec. 1, at 4 p.m. CT at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center against Grambling State.
Follow updates on Sunday’s game on Twitter @LSUBasketball and on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/LSUBasketball.