After perhaps its most dominant half in a game this season, LSU struggled to contain Southeastern Conference Player of the Year Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in the second half but grinded out a 68-63 victory against Georgia in the second round of the SEC Tournament.
Junior forward Shavon Coleman broke out of his recent offensive rut to pace the Tigers (19-11, 10-9 SEC) with 24 points after scoring that much in his last four conference games combined.
The Thibodaux native fought off a bout of vomiting on the bench during the first half to bury four of his five 3-pointers. Coleman’s outburst was uncharacteristic as he made only nine treys all season leading up to the game.
“Tonight I just had the hot hand and the team kept coming to me,” Coleman said. “So when you got a hot fella like that, you got to keep coming to him.”
As they’ve done in many games of late, the Tigers raced out to an early lead behind a barrage of 3-pointers and suffocating defense, forcing four Bulldog turnovers by the second media timeout with 11:29 left as LSU led 21-11.
Junior guard Andre Stringer, who finished the game with 16 points and three assists, finished the run with back-to-back 3-pointers while playing tight defense on Caldwell-Pope.
Stringer and senior guard Charles Carmouche combined to hold Caldwell-Pope to seven first-half points as the Tigers switched defenders off every screen and defensive set.
“I tried to stay attached to him as much as possible,” Stringer said. “I think I did a decent job in the first half.”
From the 11:29 mark on, the Tiger defense flexed its muscles, holding Georgia to only two field goals for the rest of the half as LSU carried a commanding 39-19 lead into the locker room.
But as the Bulldogs came out in a zone defense to begin the second half, Caldwell-Pope put his team on his back, slicing and dicing his way to 25 second-half points, good enough to set a new career-high with 32 and cut what once was a 23-point Tiger lead down to single digits.
“When you have a great player like [Caldwell-Pope], you have to stay connected to him, and I think that was the big difference,” said LSU coach Johnny Jones. “They drove the ball, but I think Caldwell-Pope was the big difference in the second half.”
As Caldwell-Pope heated up, the Tigers went cold, missing point-blank layups and leaving points at the free-throw line, going almost eight minutes without a field goal as Georgia cut the lead to two with 1:05 to play.
Then it was Stringer who stepped up to bury a deep 3-pointer as the shot clock ticked down on the ensuing possession to push the Tiger lead to five.
After Coleman’s stout perimeter defense forced a wild Caldwell-Pope miss on a try, Stringer swished two foul shots to ice the game and send the Tigers into the quarterfinals to face No. 1 seed Florida at noon today.
For Jones, whose Tigers were schooled on the boards, 45-31, the key to avenging January’s 22-point loss to the Gators lies in the same glass his team couldn’t control Thursday.
“That’s an area we’re going to really have to improve in,” Jones said. “It’s going to be a war zone down there. Florida is strong. They’re very physical and they’ll get to the basket and also rebound the ball strong.”
