LSU Basketball Toughs Out 67-66 Home Win Against Georgia

BATON ROUGE – Will Baker made two free throws with 15 seconds to play and then LSU stopped two Georgia misses in the lane at the other end as the game ended to give the Tigers a 67-66 win over the Bulldogs Tuesday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

The Tigers have now won more games than a year ago at 15-13 and upped their SEC record to 7-8 with three games remaining. LSU will be no worse than eighth in the standings after Wednesday’s games are completed.

The game turned into a back-and-forth affair in the end that featured six lead changes and two ties. The teams were tied with three minutes to play at 61-61 before Georgia’s Justin Hill hit a three to give UGA a 64-61 advantage with 2:41 to play.

But the Tigers then worked their way back. Jordan Wright, who would make 10-of-11 free throws on the night, drew a foul driving for the goal and made both tosses to cut the Georgia lead to 64-63 with 2:31 to play.

Georgia brought the ball over halfcourt and called timeout and when play resumed, Wright was able to force a steal and got the ball to Tyrell Ward who drove and scored to put LSU up 65-64 with 2:05 to play.

Georgia missed a mid-range jumper; LSU got the rebound and missed a long-range jumper as the game entered the final minute of play. Silas Demary Jr., missed a layup and the ball ended up in a scramble on the floor giving UGA the possession on the jump ball with 38 seconds to play.

Georgia’s Hill was able to get to the goal and score to give the Bulldogs back the lead at 66-65 with 29 seconds to play.

LSU had been out of timeouts since the 4:28 mark so the Tigers had to play on. Baker drew the foul inside as he went up with the ball and went to the line where he was 1-of-3 to that point in the game.

But the graduate student sank both shots and Georgia with a timeout remaining decided to play on. First Hill drove the paint and missed the layup but LSU could not come up with the ball. Dylan James did for UGA and he got the ball to Noah Thomasson whose driving shot to the lane was blocked by LSU’s Jalen Reed. Jordan Wright got the rebound and held it as the horn sounded to end the contest.

UGA dropped to 15-13 and 5-10 in the SEC.

Wright led LSU with 17 points on 3-of-7 shooting with a trey and the 10 free throws. Baker had 12 points on 4-of-9 shooting with a trey and the three free throws. Ward showed no effect of the injury that kept him out much of Saturday’s loss to Mississippi State and had eight points, with two treys. Reed had eight points on 4-of-6 shooting.

Tiger point guard Trae Hannibal played almost 39 minutes with six points, six rebounds, a team co-high eight assists and just two turnovers.

Georgia was led by Thomasson with 16 points while Hill had 11 for the Bulldogs.

LSU shot 46.8 percent for the game (22-of-47) and 9-of-18 from distance. LSU improved its free throw shooting to 14-of-18 (77.8%). LSU shot 58.3 percent (14-of-24) and 7-of-10 from deep in the first 20 minutes when the Tigers built a 40-27 halftime advantage.

Georgia finished at 37.3 percent (22-of-59) with seven treys and 15-of-19 at the line.

Georgia won the rebound battle, 34-31 with a 9-0 advantage on second chance points.

After LSU hit just three treys and four assists in the entire game Saturday against Mississippi State, the Tigers had three treys and four assists by the 15:46 mark of the first half Tuesday night.

The Tigers go on the road now Saturday to Nashville to face Vanderbilt in Memorial Gymnasium at 2:30 p.m. on the SEC Network and the LSU Sports Radio Network.
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LSU vs Georgia
February 27, 2024
LSU Head Coach Matt McMahon

OPENING STATEMENT:
“Just so proud of our players. The game wasn’t a thing of beauty, but at the end of the day the goal is to win by any means necessary. First half, I loved our offensive execution. Sharing of the basketball, elite shooting, minus the turnovers. And the turnovers really prevented us from building a larger lead there in the first half. Credit to Georgia, you know a really nice play there at the buzzer to generate a little momentum on the tip-in, and then came out and I thought really were the aggressor in the second half. But with all that said, we were not very good offensively in the second half. But when they took the lead, they clearly had all the momentum, and I think it says a lot about our players. The toughness, the grit, to find a way to make enough plays there in the last minute to get the win.”

On the improvement in the team’s late-game play…
“It has zero to do with coaching. It’s all about the players. Their buy in, how they’ve worked in practice, even after some of those tough losses at the buzzer at Georgia, at the buzzer at Florida, they never wavered. They’ve come back to practice to learn and get better. They’ve stuck together as a group as guys have fallen off for whatever reasons; injuries, illness. Just a big believer in if you continue to put in the work, if you’re about the right things, you’ll make those improvements necessary. And ultimately, Glen, you’ve got to win one of them. And then it starts to create some belief, and I’m looking forward to watching the last possession because I know our guys were exhausted. We were gassed, but I thought our guys were flying around and had some great contests at the rim, breaking up the rhythm. And then Jalen Reed with a phenomenal contest to win it. So, it’s something for us to continue to build on, but I think it just speaks to the character and toughness of our players, their resiliency to stay the course and find ways to win.”

LSU Forward Jalen Reed

On the final seconds of the game …
“It was hectic. They were moving really fast trying to get to the rim. I am glad that I was in there and able to make a play for my team and help us get a meaningful win today.”

On developing his defense …
“I mainly just try to focus on walling up and avoid fouling. With my frame, I think I am able to get a few blocks in, especially on smaller guards. I think my wall-ups are really effective. I spent a lot of time focusing on maintaining my verticality and I live with the results.”

LSU Guard Jordan Wright

On continuing to win …
“Winning is hard. Honestly, throughout my career I have learned that. I have been on the losing side of a lot of close games. We are learning and figuring out how to win. I think that is the biggest thing with this team, coming off of the season last year and the games that we have been in earlier in the year, we are figuring out the toughness and togetherness that we need to have to finish these close games. I think Jalen (Reed) was awesome down the stretch with a great drop-off to Will (Baker) and those two back-to-back wall-ups and forced contested lay-ups. I think we did not have those traits early on in the year. We might have forced a shot, we might have fouled at the end of the game, we might have given up offensive rebounds at the end of the game. Learning how to win, having poise, and, like Coach said, confidence is really what you need to win games down the stretch.”

On the slowness of the second half …
“Credit to them. They made some big shots late. They continued to execute their offense and did the things that they were supposed to do. I think offensively, we were the ones that got stagnant. I think we did get a little bit complacent. We just have to find ways to continue to keep the same aggression and continue to bottle them up on defense the way that we did in the first half. I think that a lot of us score easier baskets, and when a team is scoring so much, it slows the game down because you have to continuously take the ball out and run sets. We did not get as many stops as we did in the first half, so that contributed to the stagnancy on offense.”
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Georgia Head Coach Mike White

On the overall game and the final 15 seconds of the game…
“Tough, we needed a stop and a score, and we did not get a stop. We fouled, and they did not foul, that is it. We put a lot of pressure on the rim. Justin Hill and Noah Thomasson did a really good job and the extra possession created by Dylan James’s activity was a heck of a play. I am hurt for our guys. Tough environment in our locker room right now because our guys laid it on the line and played as hard as they have played all year. In many ways, I thought we deserved that win, but LSU did too. Those guys are playing their best basketball of the year, and they made a lot of plays. Tough loss for us, but a good win for LSU.”

On Dylan James’s play tonight and his progress in his freshman season…
“I am really proud of his activity. His motor has improved immensely from the first day of practice. Just adjusting to this level, a 6’9” guy with great length, with a good skill level that has transformed the level of his game pretty quickly. From being a block guy who sometimes picks and pops to a guy who is playing primarily on the perimeter. Both offensively and defensively he has made big strides. He is also a guy who does a lot of things beginning with his length. He is just longer when he is out there whether he is at the three or the four. He is continuing to progress like our other freshmen.”