After a tough stretch of the schedule that featured key injuries, strong opposition and questionable officiating, many fans expected a break from the stress with most key players back from injury and a considerably easier stretch of games. That sense of relief quickly transitioned into a chokehold of despair, as the team played its worst half of basketball against Ole Miss.
The 12.5-point favorites looked like 20-point underdogs, as LSU materialized into its worst version to date. They fell to a max deficit of 24 points with just under six minutes left in the first half, with the defense being even more ineffective than it had been against TCU in its previous game.
Ole Miss ultimately shot 65% from the field at the half and topped that off with an absurd 63.6% from three-point range on 11 attempts.
Will Wade described the first half implosion as a surprise, as he felt like the team was ready to go based on their performances at practice and shoot-arounds.
“I thought we were ready to go,” Wade said. “It was more surprising that I got caught off guard. Usually, I have a pretty good feeling for when we’re ready to go and when we’re not ready to go.”
A defense that gives up 60 points per game was on pace to give that number up in the first half, with Ole Miss scoring 43 points through the first 15 minutes of the period. But the Tigers finally seemed to wake up, going on a 13-2 run to finish the half with a slightly more manageable deficit of 13.
For a moment, LSU looked like the team that had beaten two top-20 teams in one week, forcing turnovers, causing missed shots and converting fast breaks into points, but the disappointments from this game were not over yet.
The disappointment from the first half came from an uninspired, sluggish start that resulted in the team being put in a horrible position early in the game. The disappointment from the second half came from how many times the Tigers got within striking distance whilst failing to capture a single lead.
They got within five points through the first seven minutes of the second half before giving up an 8-0 run in just over a minute and a half of play to place LSU in the exact same position it was in at the beginning of the half.
The Tigers got within two points with a minute and a half remaining, stole the ball on their next defensive possession and had the ball stolen. And just when they had the chance to get the stop on defense and the ball back with a full 30 seconds left, they committed a foul with just six seconds remaining on the shot clock.
They had ample opportunity to erase the mistakes they had made in the first half and failed. But the season isn’t over yet by any means, and Coach Wade believes that they can still find a way to turn this season back into a great one.
“I still believe in this team,” Wade stated. “Our margins are razor thin, particularly without Pinson at full strength, but we still have a good group and we’re going to find a way to dig something out here down the stretch.”
