Da Boot Sports 2/26/2023 By: Terrill J. Weil BATON ROUGE, LA - In September of 2021 the LSU Board of Supervisors voted to name the Pete Maravich Assembly Center's basketball court after LSU legendary basketball coach Dale Brown. The vote passed. What an honor for Coach Brown. An honor that was very long over-due. "Dale Brown Court"... A fitting name for the court that Dale Brown built after coming to Baton Rouge with only $300 in his pocket and very little support. "Awards and honors were never a goal of mine. My only goals were to build LSU into a national power and to help young men improve their lives." Dale Brown said after the announcement of the decision. "Now, though, with the tremendous honor LSU’s Board of Supervisors has just given me –the naming of Dale Brown Court—I get to use one of the most powerful phrases in the English language: THANK YOU! Thank you to the Board of Supervisors for thinking enough of me to make this happen. Thank you to the people of Louisiana who have always allowed me to enjoy such a special relationship with both LSU and this entire state that I have loved for so long. Thank you to the parents who entrusted me with their sons. Thank you to my players and assistant coaches and support staff. Thank you to LSU fans everywhere. You have given me the honor of a lifetime. More than that, you have honored me by allowing me to be part of your lives for so many years now. THANK YOU!" Only a little over a year after honoring Dale Brown with a ceremony, unveiling his signature on the court in front of a capacity crowd before LSU's contest against Kentucky, the LSU Board of Supervisors once again voted for a name change to the PMAC basketball court. The vote took place on Friday, Feb. 10th. The board approved to add former women's basketball coach Sue Gunter's name to the court by the vote of 14-1. UNREAL! Dick Vitale jumped on Twitter when he heard the news.... “How ABSURD – in Louisiana, the Governor wants to change the name of the LSU basketball court that was named DALE BROWN COURT in a dedication ceremony about a year ago. This is wacky, Dale deserved the honor & it finally was affirmed & now UGLY POLITICS is involved.” Tim Brando who was a driving force back in 2021 in pushing for the naming of the court after Brown, mentioning back then to the LSU Board of Supervisors.... “Skip Bertman, the legend of LSU, who also was here when I was here,” said Brando. “He came in 1984 when I was still working at Channel 9, at WAFB. I left in 1986 for ESPN. Skip Bertman has said, and I quote, ‘Dale Brown’s presence at Louisiana State University is worth more than my five national championships as head baseball coach.’ That’s Skip Bertman.” After hearing about the name change, Brando would go onto say on Crain & Company.... “How dare Louisiana and LSU do this to them, and this is so typical of my state. Listen, I have great pride, as you know, in where I’m from. I love Louisiana… I’m pissed off, and it’s time other people get pissed off. Shaq, I’ve texted you, where are you? Make the calls, do it now. We have other people in power who could do something about this and stop it.” Gunter coached at LSU from 1982-2004, finishing with a 442-221 (.667) record. Gunter led the Lady Tigers to 14 NCAA Tournaments and two WNITs, winning one. She also directed LSU to 14 season of 20 wins or more, including a 30 win season. Halfway through the 2003-2004 season, poor health forced Gunter to take a medical leave of absence, later being diagnosed with emphysema. Gunter would not return to her position and later passed away on August 4th, 2005. LSU has since honored Sue Gunter with a very nice monument displaying her career achievements including a beautiful statue inside of the PMAC. My anger towards this name change is in no way shape or form anything personal towards Coach Gunter. She was a wonderful person and a great basketball coach. My argument is that she's been honored already by the university and it's a slap in the face to Dale Brown to make this change. Coach Brown deserves to be singled out without sharing an honor. If this is what the university wanted, then it should have been done from the beginning back when they voted in 2021. It was discussed and voted against. Now, going back to re-vote on this so soon is embarrassing. It's like stating that they made a mistake. Naming the court, 'Dale Brown Court' was no mistake. "LSU names 'Dale Brown Court' on January 4, 2022. One year later LSU changes the naming of 'Dale Brown Court'." former basketball player Russell Grant said. "The naming of a court is suppose to be an honor of achievement. LSU has stripped the honor for all involved. Coach Brown did not deserve this and I feel really bad for him and his entire family." This shouldn't of happened. Who the hell is responsible for resurfacing this vote? It's been reported that Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards and LSU President William V. Tate were involved in pushing for the change. You Mr. Governor should be worried about fixing the horrible problems with our state rather then putting your two cents in on a sports issue. You Mr. William Tate should be more concerned with crime on the LSU campus and safety concerns of the university and the students rather then pushing change on something that shouldn't be. Where is Scott Woodward through all of this? Is Woodward a coward? He should have been the first person to speak up and put a stop to this. "I'm hurt and in disbelief!" said former player Dennis Tracey. "This is disgraceful and an embarrassment. It cuts the heart out of the LSU men's basketball program. What cowards." If LSU feels the need to honor Coach Gunter with more than a shrine and statue in the concourse of the PMAC, then why not name the women's practice facility after her? Or better yet, build the women's basketball program their own 9,000 seat gymnasium on campus and they can name it 'Sue Gunter Arena'. "First off I think both coaches are legendary coaches." said former LSU basketball player Maurice Williamson. "I do think it's a disservice to change the name of the basketball court. Nothing against Coach Gunter. She was a great coach. But I think Coach Brown did a little more for LSU, for his players and for the people of Louisiana. I'm still shocked and surprised to this day that they don't have a statue of Coach Brown outside of the PMAC to honor him." You simply don't bestow an honor on someone then strip it away, especially in such a short period of time. It's wrong and deceitful. LSU, you should be embarrassed and ashamed... Keep it 'Dale Brown Court'! *John 14:6 - "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior)
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Da Boot Sports 2/25/2023 LSU Sports Communications By: Kent Lowe OXFORD, Mississippi – The Ole Miss Rebels shot 55 percent, including 62 percent in the final 20 minutes to score an 82-69 win over the LSU Tigers Saturday night at the Sandy and John Black Pavilion at Ole Miss. The Rebels were 18-of-29 in the second half and finished 32-of-58 for the game as Ole Miss kept LSU from cutting into a 35-26 deficit at the half by outscoring LSU, 47-43. The win wiped out a 29-point effort by fifth year senior KJ Williams. Williams hit 10-of-18 field goals with two treys and 7-of-8 at the line to follow up his 35-point effort against Vanderbilt on Wednesday. LSU led for much of the first 15 minutes of the game, building as much as a seven-point advantage at 15-8 with 9:38 to go in the half. But Ole Miss began to assert itself at that point and after Trae Hannibal made two free throws to tie the game at 19-19, Ole Miss outscored LSU, 16-7 including a 10-0 run to take the 35-26 halftime advantage that would have been larger had Williams not hit a three-pointer at the buzzer. The second half went completely toward the offensive end as both teams shot 50 percent in the final 20 minutes for the second straight game. LSU scored the first five points of the half on two Williams free throws and a Miller three to make the Rebel lead just 35-31. LSU had a chance to get even closer on an Ole Miss turnover, but Tyrell Ward missed a three-pointer and Ole Miss scored back-to-back buckets to increase the lead back to eight, 39-31, and LSU could get no closer than the four at the start of the half. “Number one, credit to Ole Miss. They had had a lot go on here in the last 48 hours and I thought they came out really inspired and played together with great energy,” said LSU Coach Matt McMahon. “They just really manhandled us on the perimeter. Bumped us off every cut, really physical. Then, as you saw there, especially in the second half, unable to guard them. Just got beat time and time again off the dribble. “In the first half, you get off to the great start, 15-8, obviously they were trying to double KJ (Williams), they were trying to take him away in the post. We got some good looks on those doubles, we were unable to knock them down and then we also took a couple of just horrific shots off the dribble that really hurt us in that stretch. Then to close it out there, every time we got it down to six or seven, we just couldn’t get a stop. They scored on almost every possession in the second half.” “Really unfortunate, I thought we made some progress there. We had some untimely turnover and those 13 turnovers, the turnover battle pretty similar, but they (Ole Miss) convert theirs into 16 points. We only turned our forced turnovers into four. That ended up being a big difference in the game as well.” Besides the 29 from Williams, Adam Miller had 15 points and five assists on the night. Cam Hayes also had five assists. LSU shot 15-of-30 in the first half and made 5-of-14 from the arc in the second half after opening the game 2-of-13 from distance. LSU finished 24-of-54 for 44.4 percent and 7-of-27 from the arc. LSU was 14-of-15 from the free throw line. For the first time in several games, the Tigers also gave up points on turnovers to the advantage of 16-4 in favor of Ole Miss. LSU turned the ball over 13 times but against Ole Miss’ 10 turnovers the Tigers could only get four points. “Really unfortunate, I thought we made some progress there. We had some untimely turnovers and those 13 turnovers, the turnover battle pretty similar, but they (Ole Miss) convert theirs into 16 points. We only turned our forced turnovers into four. That ended up being a big difference in the game as well,” said Coach McMahon Ole Miss was led by Jaemyn Brakefield who owned the paint for the Rebels, scoring 23 points with 10 rebounds, making 8-of-10 field goals and going 7-of-7 at the line. Amaree Abram had 14 points, Myles Burns 12 and Matthew Murrell 11. Ole Miss’ final shooting percentage was 55.2 percent and the Rebels were 9-of-21 from three for 42.9 percent. The Rebels posted a 42-24 advantage in points in the paint and tied LSU with 28 rebounds. The Tigers will play their final home game of the season on Wednesday night against Missouri. Senior night tributes will begin at 7:45 p.m. and the game will tip just after 8 p.m. CT. Tickets are available at LSUTix.net. Da Boot Sports 2/22/2023 By: Terrill J. Weil BATON ROUGE, LA - The Tigers returned to action on Wednesday night hoping to snap their 14 game losing streak against a red hot Vanderbilt team in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center/Dale Brown Court and that they did, shocking the Commodores with an 84-77 victory in front of 8,827 excited Tiger fans. Lead by KJ Williams who finished with 35 points, the Tigers were able to put together a solid performance on both ends of the court as they controlled the final 11 minutes of the contest. Vandy made a push late but the Tigers made plays when needed and sank their free throws to seal the win. “Great win for our team tonight. Really proud of our players. I loved the process we went through these last 48 hours; I thought the preparation was really good." Matt McMahon said. "I thought our guys played with great energy. I thought we had a really good shoot around that carried over into tonight. Really felt like we had a team out there tonight and it was a lot of fun to watch. The guys were really locked in to do the things we needed to do to have success. Obviously, KJ (Williams), his performance was off the charts, 35 and 10. I thought Adam Miller getting to the free-throw line 10 times was huge. 18 points there. Then I just think there were some other stats that have really been missing for us of late. You know, Trae Hannibal didn’t take a shot tonight, but he had the highest plus/minus in the game of any player. Juice Hill, four-to-one assist to turnover ratio, had the second-highest plus/minus in the game tonight. We have been challenging our players, this is where you find out what you are made of. It’s been a difficult stretch. Happy for our guys to come in here and play well and find a way to win tonight.” Vandy started the contest hot from behind the arc, hitting their first three shots from three point range to grab a 9-2 lead at the 16:31 mark, before LSU responded with a 9-2 run of their own to tie the game at 11-11. The Tigers then found another gear as they took their first lead, 19-18 with 9:47 left in the first half on a Jalen Reed layup. The Bayou Bengals extended their lead going on a 12-0 run to go up, 28-18 with 6:48 left on the clock. The teams would go to the locker rooms at the break with LSU holding a 39-32 lead as the Tigers put together probably their best half of play since the Kentucky game. KJ Williams led the Tigers at the break with 12 first half points, while Tyrell Ward scored 8 and Adam Miller added 7 points. The key stats of the first half was LSU shooting 6-13 from three point land for 46% and the Tigers outrebounding the Commodores, 27-19. Vanderbilt scored the first six points of the second half to cut LSU's lead to one, 39-38 as the game remained tight over the next eight minutes. With the score even at 50-50 at the 11:57 mark, the Tigers went on a 20-10 run over the next six minutes to take control of the game as they held a 70-60 lead. With the win, LSU is now 13-15 overall and 2-13 in SEC play. Next up the Tigers will travel to Oxford to play Ole Miss on Saturday, Feb. 25 at 7:30pm CT. The contest will be televised on the SEC Network. Photo Below By: Michael Bacigalupi Photo Below By: Jonathan Mailhes *John 14:6 - "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior) A huge Thank You to Cardio Health Solutions owned by Ron Sancho for sponsoring our publication! Da Boot Sports supports Autism Awareness Da Boot Sports 2/19/2023 LSU Sports Communications By: Kent Lowe BATON ROUGE – South Carolina opened Saturday’s basketball game at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center by making its first five three-point attempts and LSU was never really able to recover, falling 82-73, to the Gamecocks. Carolina made 8-of-16 distance shots in the first half and 15-of-32 for the game and seemed to get keep shots when LSU was trying to rally in the second half. It was South Carolina’s third league win and all have been on the road this season. LSU falls to 12-15 and 1-13 in the league. The loss wiped out a strong performance by LSU’s Cam Hayes, who equaled his career high with 25 points. His overall line was extremely strong in 34 minutes, hitting 8-of-15 shots, including 4-of-8 at the three-point line with five free throws, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals. KJ Williams added 14 points and Derek Fountain had 13. LSU only turned the ball over six times, a season low, after 19 turnovers on Tuesday at Georgia, but shot 26-of-62 (41.9%) for the game with seven treys and just 14-of-26 from the free throw line. South Carolina finished at 46.3 percent (25-of-54) with the 15 treys and equally hurtful, 17-of-18 at the charity stripe. Both Gregory “GG” Jackson II and Meechie Johnson had 20 points apiece for Carolina with Johnson hitting five treys and Jackson four. Jacobi Wright had five treys in scoring 18 points and Hayden Brown had 16. The teams had 36 rebounds each and LSU had a 16-9 advantage in offensive rebounds, but only a 23-16 plus margin in second chance points. With the five opening threes, South Carolina jumped out to a 15-5 advantage 4:30 into the contest. LSU twice cut it to one point at 22-21 and 25-24 and 32-31 in the first half and went to the dressing room, down, 36-31. The Gamecocks came out and hit two treys early in the half to build the lead back to nine, and LSU was never really able to get the margin to within striking distance the rest of the way. LSU returns to the Maravich Center on Wednesday night at 6 p.m. against Vanderbilt. Tickets are available at LSUTix.net. LSU Head Coach Matt McMahon Opening Statement… “Not a whole lot to say. Obviously, it was a very disappointing afternoon. Give credit to South Carolina, they had great energy and shot the ball incredibly well from the three-point line and that was ultimately the difference in the game. You look at a lot of the other statistical categories that were fairly favorable to us, but we were minus 24 points from behind the three-point line and thought they had the energy and played with the urgency that was necessary to win this game, so give them great credit.” On the first half... “I think it is just, again from a coaching standpoint, it is your responsibility whether you are making shots or what have you, you have got to get your transition defense set. Have to close out and run guys off the three-point line. We thought the two biggest keys for us from a defensive standpoint would be defending the three, where you look at guys like (Jacobi) Wright and Meechie Johnson who have been shooting it at a really good clip here lately, you know how capable GG (Gregory) Jackson II is there. Then also the defensive rebounds, I think in their last five games, (Josh) Gray, (Hayden) Brown and Jackson were around nine to 10 offensive rebounds a game. Clearly, we didn’t get the job done. I thought we allowed some missed opportunities to finish at the basket to turn into open threes for them in transition and they made us pay. They started five-for-five, they went three-for their next-16, which enabled us to get back into the game there in the first half. Unfortunately, we were not able to convert at the free-throw lines or some layups there. We come in down five and then second half, right back, seven-of-16 from three, just hard to win games when teams shoot it that well from behind the arc. It’s our responsibility to make them miss is the bottom line. On the play of Cam Hayes… “When you play hard and you are locked in and focused, it really carries over to every area of the game. You’ll look and see he had 25 points on just 15 shots, so that’s really efficient, four-of-eight from three. He also had eight defensive rebounds, he also had four assists and three steals. I thought he was really locked in and impacted the game at both ends of the floor. Unfortunately, we were not able to do enough in other areas to give ourselves a chance to win.” South Carolina Head Coach Lamont Paris Opening Statement “What a great win for our guys. It’s probably the best game they’ve (South Carolina) played with everything involved, from shooting performance to how we generated shots. I’m really happy with our performance.” On cleaning up the team’s performance in the second half… “The first half, we missed a lot of stuff around the basket. ‘GG’ (Gregory Jackson II) had a layup in transition that he missed, Josh (Gray) got blocked on a dunk and Hayden (Brown) got down and around the basket two times and didn’t get anything out of it. There were opportunities there and we also gave up 15 second-chance points in the first half. We did a better job in the second half of sewing that stuff up.” On if he believes that hitting early shots has a positive effect on the team… “There’s no doubt. As long as I’ve done it, that’s how it goes. You get off to a good start and the guys feel good. The rim looks bigger, everyone’s talked about that. If you look at Jacobi (Wright) today, he goes bang-bang-bang with three three pointers in succession and he felt good. Then, he didn’t get a shot for a while and he takes one in the second half and he barely drew iron. It’s not even just you. I think that if you see your teammates making a bunch of shots and often times that inspires you and you know that the lids not on the rim anymore, so you can shoot the ball as well.” Da Boot Sports 2/15/2023 By: Terrill J. Weil ATHENS, GA - LSU went into Stegeman Coliseum in Athens on Tuesday night hoping to come away with a victory to snap their 11 game skid, but the Bulldogs made the plays late in the game to defeat the Bayou Bengals, 65-63. Down by six with 3:43 left in the contest, the Tigers went on a 7-0 run to grab a 63-62 lead on a KJ Williams jumper with 11 seconds left. Georgia's Justin Hill scored on a quick layup giving the Bulldogs the lead with seven seconds remaining on the clock. Hill was then fouled with one second remaining after stealing LSU's inbound pass at half court. He sank one of both of his free throws to clinch the 65-63 win. “Disappointed. It’s my fault. I wish I could have done a better job for them down the stretch,” said LSU Coach Matt McMahon. “I thought we really executed; KJ (Williams) made a great play to finish there. You know, hindsight is always 20/20, call a timeout in that situation and use the last timeout, but you’ll see in the clip we just didn’t have great discipline in the gaps on that last drive. KJ made a great play to come over and wall up, but they were able to finish. Proud of our guys’ fight. I thought we really competed at a much higher level than we did on Saturday and gave ourselves a chance. The 19 turnovers, and in the second half, Georgia was 12-for-15 from two-point range. I thought that was really the difference.” A three pointer by Tyrell Ward gave the Tigers a 12-11 lead at the 11:07 mark in the first half. LSU then took control of the game, but was held scoreless over the final 4:35 of the half allowing Georgia to cut a seven point lead to two, as the Tigers held on to a 28-26 lead at the break. The Tigers continued to cling to their lead early in the second half until the Bulldogs tied the game, 35-35 at the 14:27 mark before taking the lead, 39-35, during an 8-0 run. The game turned into a back and forth contest over the next six minutes with three ties and five lead changes. With the game even at 46-46, Jabri Abdur-Rahim hit a three pointer to give the Bulldogs the lead with 8:46 left, a lead that Georgia would hang onto until 11 seconds left. The Tigers refused to quit with Georgia leading by eight, 57-49 with 6:09 left on the clock, going on a 14-5 run culminating with KJ Williams' jumper to give LSU the lead with 11 seconds remaining. KJ Williams led the Tigers with 18 points and 9 rebounds. Jalen Reed finished with 9 points, Derek Fountain added 8, Adam Miller and Justice Hill each scored 6. Next up, LSU, now 12-14 overall/1-12 in the SEC, will host South Carolina in the PMAC on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 12:00pm CST. *John 14:6 - "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior) A huge Thank You to Cardio Health Solutions owned by Ron Sancho for sponsoring our publication! Da Boot Sports supports Autism Awareness Da Boot Sports 2/12/2023 LSU Sports Communications By: Kent Lowe BATON ROUGE – The LSU basketball team was unable to get anything going in the first 20 minutes, dropping a 74-62 decision to Texas A&M Saturday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. LSU falls below .500 for the first time in the season at 12-13 and drops to 1-11 in the Southeastern Conference. Texas A&M, with its second win over LSU, runs its record to 10-2 in the league in second place and 18-7 overall. Sophomore Adam Miller (18) and freshman Tyrell Ward (15) combined for 33 of LSU’s 62 points as LSU played maybe their best 20 minutes in the second half, making 16-of-30 shots (53.3%) and 7-of-15 at the arc (46.7%). Texas A&M dominated the first 20 minutes jumping out to a 10-2 lead and then 17-2 in the first nine minutes as LSU could not put together buckets, shooting just 6-of-23 (26.1%) and 3-of-14 from the arc, while A&M was 12-of-23 in the first half (52.2%) and 6-of-9 from the arc (66.7%). A&M was 11-of-13 at the free throw line as well. A&M led by as much as 29 in the first half and by 41-17 at the halftime intermission. LSU came out with a new fire in the second half, however, and slowly tried to whittle away at the A&M advantage, cutting the game to 16 points 2:30 in and to 12 on a Miller three-pointer, 51-39, with 12:08 to play. Even though the Tigers could not keep A&M from getting points, the Tigers continued to battle and Miller’s three-pointer with 4:08 to play put LSU within eight at 61-53. That would be the first of four times the Tigers cut the game to eight in the final minutes before A&M pushed it out to the final 12-point deficit. LSU finished the game at 41.5 percent (22-of-53) and 10-of-29 from the arc (34.5%). A&M finished the game at 20-of-42 (47.6%) with eight treys and 26-of-32 at the free throw line. LSU out rebounded A&M, 30-12, and after giving up 42 points in the paint in the first meeting, had a 22-18 advantage on the Aggies in this game. Wade Taylor IV had 23 points to lead Texas A&M, while Dexter Dennis had 13 and Tyrece Radford 12. LSU must turn around quickly as they leave Monday for a Tuesday 7:30 p.m. game in Athens against the University of Georgia. --- LSU Head Coach Matt McMahon Opening Statement… “Great win for Texas A&M. I have a lot of respect for how they have handled their season. I know they struggled a little bit in early November but man, they just embody everything you want your team to be. They play their tail off, they are physical and tough, they are connected. They play for each other. Every player on their team is a star in their role and you just have a lot of respect for that. In the first half, obviously it’s incredibly disappointing. I just don’t understand not coming out ready to play. I thought we missed some easy ones there early around the basket. We missed a layup, we missed a couple of threes and we let that dictate our defensive energy, intensity and attention to detail. They just carved us up there. Obviously, I’m not going to sit here and talk about the second half, that’s how you should play. I thought our guys came out and played with a lot of passion, energy and toughness. It was probably our most efficient offensive half of SEC play. It’s going to be hard to win when you don’t give yourself a chance there in the first half.” On the main differences between the first and second half… “Energy, effort, toughness, maybe some pride too. All those things that are the price of admission. What a privilege it is to put the jersey on, coach here. You have got to put everything you have into it.” On the play of Tyrell Ward, Shawn Phillips Jr. and Jalen Reed… “I’ve been really pleased with their progression. I thought Tyrell (Ward) played extremely hard, made a few mistakes on the defensive end but that is going to happen. I’m an easy coach to play for. You just play your tail off and be about the team and we will live with the mistakes and coach and teach them to get better. I think he did some good things for us tonight and has really stepped forward there. Shawn Phillips, I love his passion. He really cares. It means a lot to him. He is a lot of growing and learning to do, but I know it means a lot to him. Really cares. When you have a guy there at seven feet with his length, he can move. He will just keep getting better and better. I thought Jalen (Reed) came in, gets five rebounds, had a really nice drive and finish and showed some emotion. I think those three continue to get better every time out.” LSU Guard Adam Miller On the energy exerted in the second half … “A lot of energy, but it is not like we were here in the first half, so that is how you are supposed to feel after a game. You should feel wiped out. We didn’t play 40 minutes, we played 20 minutes. If we would have played 40 minutes, we probably would have been more tired than this. We exerted a lot more energy than we did in the first half, not just on the court, but with our communication, picking each other up. The intangibles in the game were picked up in the second half. I think we won the second half with points. It is kind of like a cycle now that we have to break. We just have to lead by example, keep pushing each other. It is kind of hard, I feel like as a team, we come here every day. If you come here and see our practices, we practice hard every day. It is just the little things. We just have to put it together. I feel like it is on the players, not on the coaching staff or anything. The players just chose to play 20 minutes today, myself also.” On the freshmen’s growth … “I think the upperclassmen have to lead, show the freshmen class and the younger guys how things are supposed to be done. I feel like we have to continue to grow in that area, to continue to get these guys ready. I feel like Tyrell (Ward) did a great job. Ever since he got here, he puts in extra work. I am not surprised for him to take advantage of the opportunity. We have some hard-working freshmen. Shawn Phillips, he plays his heart out… he was the guy that got us going in the second half. He came in here, all around the locker room. The attitude he put on, he showed us that we have a guy like that who wants to play. As upperclassmen, he is pouring his heart out to us and it ignited our fire for us in the second half. The freshmen class, like Jalen Reed, I feel like they take advantage of their opportunities, and they are going to keep growing. We just have to keep leading them, believing them.” LSU Forward Tyrell Ward On his personal growth… “I would just say I was waiting for my opportunity and not getting impatient because if I were to rush my opportunity to happen, it would not happen this way. Just staying consistent with my habits, like working, being the first one out for every game, being first and last for every practice. The little things like that will carry over, no matter what.” On his offensive aggressiveness … “I feel like I always have been capable of doing it, just like I said before, just waiting on my opportunity and not forcing anything, taking my defense good.” --- Texas A&M Coach Buzz Williams On the end of the first half… “I think their [LSU] sixth basket was at the buzzer on three over there away from us, but there was a long time that they were at one basket. Then they were at two baskets. Then I think at the fourth media timeout, they were at four baskets and there was a period of time that the two free throws were their points along with one basket. We were locked into what we were doing. We knew what they were doing and even as they began to make adjustments to their plan, our guys were sensing it. We needed to lock in and do this.” Photos Below By: Michael Bacigalupi Da Boot Sports 2/8/2023 LSU Sports Communications By: Kent Lowe STARKVILLE, MS. – Despite multiple 10-0 scoring runs by the Tigers in the first half, LSU Basketball fell on the road to Mississippi State, 64-53, on Wednesday night in Humphrey Coliseum.LSU goes to 12-12 overall and 1-10 in conference play while Mississippi State improves to 16-8 overall and 4-7 in the SEC. After starting the game down 10-0, the Tigers made back-to-back 10-0 scoring runs of their own to tie the game and then take a 20-14 with 8:21 remaining in the first half. However, Mississippi State would respond with a 11-2 scoring run to to end the half and take a 25-22 lead at the break. In the second half, the Bulldogs continued to score at will, and combined with the run they put together at the end of the first half, had a 20-3 scoring run and built a 34-23 lead with 15:42 remaining in the game. In addition to the scoring runs, a familiar problem plagued the Tigers: turnovers. LSU turned the ball over 15 times which led to 20 points off turnovers for the Bulldogs. “Really tough to go on the road and start a game down 10-0 against a team that is this good defensively. So, credit to Mississippi State for that, ” said head coach Matt McMahon. “Then, we were up 22-16 there, credit to our guys, we really fought back. I thought our half court defense in the first half was terrific. They (State) scored 15 of their 25 off our turnovers or off offensive rebounds. Then, we did not finish the half in strong fashion. We could not score. Credit to them there. Then a couple unfortunate bounces there, almost had a shot clock violation that turned into a three-point play there to end the half. Then to start the second half, I thought they just came out and punched us in the face and we were unable to respond.” KJ Williams led the Tigers in both scoring and rebounding, finishing with 11 points and five boards. Adam Miller and Derek Fountain both added 10 points as well. LSU shot 20-47 on field goals (42%) and 7-21 on threes for the game. For the Bulldogs, D.J. Jeffries led the team in scoring, finishing the night with 18 points and seven rebounds. Shakeel Moore added 13 points of his own and Tolu Smith had 10 points and seven rebounds as well. Mississippi State finished 26-50 on field goals (52%) and 6-16 from the arc. The Bulldogs shot 65% on field goals in the second half as they came away with the conference win. “I thought our half court defense in the first half was fantastic. We were flying around; guys were in gaps,” said McMahon. “After they hit the two threes to start the game, they (State) didn’t make another three the rest of the half. The second half, however, our half court defense really let us down. They executed well, but you are not going to win on the road when your opponent shoots 65 percent, especially as difficult as it is for us to score the ball.” The Tigers will be back in action on Saturday as they host Texas A&M in the PMAC at 7:30 p.m. on the SEC Network.” Tickets are available at LSUTix.net. Da Boot Sports 2/4/2023 LSU Sports Communications By: Kent Lowe BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s basketball team put a tremendous fight against No. 4 Alabama but couldn’t make enough plays to get the victory, falling 79-69, at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center Saturday afternoon. The Tigers fall to 12-11 overall, 1-9 in the SEC, while Alabama is now at 20-3, 10-0 in the league. LSU played hard throughout, trying to erase the memory of the 40-point loss some three weeks ago in Tuscaloosa. LSU never allowed the Tide to get out by more than 12 points in the game and the Tigers cut the deficit to just two points three times in the second half, at 50-48 with 15:48 to play, 53-51 with 14:39 to go and 56-54 with 13:09 to play. But after Adam Miller’s three-pointer that made it 56-54 in favor of Alabama, the Tide got a three-pointer and after an LSU miss pushed the margin back out to seven and LSU never got closer than six the rest of the game. LSU junior Derek Fountain had by far his best game as a collegiate, scoring 26 points in 35 minutes, making 6-of-9 field goals, including 2-of-3 from the arc and 12-of-15 at the free throw line as he drew a total of nine fouls. Fountain, whose previous career high was as a freshman ironically in the Maravich Center as a Mississippi State Bulldog against LSU, was 20. Fountain also had two assists, no turnovers and blocked four shots. Junior Cam Hayes also had a good game with 15 points and a co-high eight boards in 28 minutes, with three treys for LSU. Rylan Griffen and Noah Clowney each had 14 points to lead Alabama’s five in double figures with Mark Sears and Nimari Burnett each getting 13. Brandon Miller had a double double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Both teams played pretty clean basketball with LSU having its second lowest turnover number of the season at eight, while Alabama turned it over nine times. LSU had a 7-3 advantage in points off turnovers. The Tigers out rebounded Alabama, 40-35, and had for the third straight game an advantage in offensive rebounds of 13-4, but it only resulted in a 6-4 advantage in second chance points. Alabama shot 44.8 percent for the game (26-of-58), including 53.3 percent (16-of-30) in the first half when they opened up a 44-37 halftime lead. LSU shot just 30.6 percent for the game (19-of-62) with seven treys. Both teams were good at the foul line, with Alabama making 14-of-15 (93.3%) and LSU finishing 24-of-31 (77.4%) LSU returns to the road on Wednesday night to face Mississippi State in Starkville, before a Saturday night 7:30 p.m. game against Texas A&M. Photos Below By: Grant Jarreau Da Boot Sports 2/2/2023 LSU Sports Communications By: Kent Lowe COLUMBIA, Missouri – The LSU basketball team had its best and longest stretch of sustained offense Wednesday night, but couldn’t stop a first-half barrage of three-pointers in an 87-77 loss to Missouri at Mizzou Arena. The Tigers had six players in double figures with two double doubles as LSU made 11 three-pointers and had opportunities in the second half to cut a quickly established double digit lead by Mizzou down to single digits inside the final eight minutes. “The way they (Missouri) play with their pressure and their switching and denial defense makes it difficult just to come down and run sets and execute in the half court. So, what ends up happening is you have to go by that pressure and make plays,” said head coach Matt McMahon. “I thought we were able to do that with success at times. You see the balance in the scoring, I thought we were able to get good looks throughout the game. Unfortunately, when you go on the road and give up 87, you are going to have to be a lot more efficient there on some of those opportunities we had on the offensive end.” KJ Williams had his sixth double double as he led LSU with 15 points and 11 rebounds, making 6-of-10 from the field and one three pointer while Derek Fountain recorded his third double double of the season, scoring 11 points with 11 rebounds. Juice Hill, in his longest stint since returning back to the team (35 minutes), had 13 points and four assists. Also, at 11 points for LSU was Adam Miller and Trae Hannibal. Hannibal also had five assists. Kobe Brown hit 10-of-11 shots for Missouri, including 5-of-6 treys to tally 26 points with eight rebounds and five assists. Noah Carter and DeAndre Gholston had 14 points each and Isiaih Mosley had 12 points. Missouri hit 11 first-half three-pointers, the most they had recorded in 10 seasons in opening up an 18-point advantage in the first 20 minutes. Mizzou hit 11-of-23 three-point attempts and was 6-of-9 inside the arc to finish the first half 17-of-32 from the field and up 48-35 at intermission. “Yeah, that was the ballgame right there. You look at the first 12 minutes we were unable to defend the three-point line at all, whether it was man, zone or switching we just couldn’t get the job done. You look at their two front court guys at the four and five position with (Noah) Carter and (Kobe) Brown, they go 8-of-12 from three with the majority of that done in the first half,” said McMahon. “Really put us in a position where we were trying to fight and claw to get back in the game. I thought we had some opportunities there. From the eight-minute mark to the four-minute mark, we had a lot of open looks and some opportunities in transition that we were not able to convert and get that lead back down to six or seven.” LSU began in the second half to attack over the Missouri press and drive to the goal and cut the margin to 11 twice – the first at the 7:34 mark with possession of the ball after a Missouri inbounds turnover. LSU was unable to close the game after missing two three-point attempts on the next possession. The Tigers would again get the game back to 11, 79-68, with 6:04 to play and after blocking a field goal attempt by Missouri, LSU missed again from distance which would have cut the game to single digits. A three-pointer by Miller with 16 seconds left got LSU back as close as it had been since early in the contest. LSU out rebounded Missouri, 38-32, with an impressive 15-5 advantage on the offensive glass which resulted in an 18-7 advantage in second chance points. LSU turned the ball over 12 times to Missouri’s 10 but the points off turnovers difference, which had plagued LSU in January SEC games, was just three, 17-14. It marked the first game LSU had more than four players in double figures and the most balanced offensive showing of the year. LSU returns to Baton Rouge and the Maravich Center to host nationally-ranked Alabama on Saturday at 3 p.m. Tickets are available at LSUTix.net. |
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