LSU men’s basketball’s Saturday night game against Mississippi State was very similar to its previous game against Texas A&M, with that the first half was near perfect and the second half—not so much for Head Coach Will Wade and the Tigers.
While the Purple and Gold managed to pull out wins in both games against the Aggies of Texas A&M and the Bulldogs of Mississippi State, these second- half slips have turned stellar performances into ones where they just barely ended up getting by with a win.
On paper, the causes of this drop-off in production against Mississippi State were obvious, with turnovers and shooting percentages from the second half jumping off the page when compared to what LSU managed in the first half.
The game opened, and the Tigers went 14-23 (61%) after starting 0-8. After missing their first eight shots from the field and going scoreless through the first four-and-a-half minutes of the game, the Tigers found the net with a Brandon Murray layup, and then the shots finally started to fall. This is a substantial difference in first half production the Tigers have shown the previous games of the season. They would make five of their next six shots, going on a 12-0 run, and ultimately finished the half shooting a respectable 45%.
The second half wasn’t entirely different from the first when it came to LSU’s shooting, as the Tigers would start the period 1-10 from the field but the key difference here was how long it took the Tigers to get going again.
At the 8:07 mark in the second half, LSU had scored just 10 points, and its lead had completely evaporated. Sure, they responded to that by putting up that same number of points in less than four minutes on a 14-2 run that stole the game for them, but losing momentum like that isn’t something you want to get used to doing–especially looking forward to the upcoming SEC Tournament and March Madness.
That, coupled with the increase in turnovers, nearly sparked disaster for the group. Along with those problems, Wade also credited struggles with communication on defense, citing that as a big difference between the two halves.
“It was our communication defensively, and on offense, we were settling too much,” Wade said. “It is a lot easier to communicate when our bench is in front of us, which is in the first half most of the time.”
The Tigers were able to get out of the hole due to a team effort, but they did have standouts in Tari Eason, who led the team in scoring for the sixteenth time this season, and Xavier Pinson through the late-game run. Wade especially credited Eason’s three-point shooting ability with providing them with an edge.
“Tari [Eason] adding a new dimension to his game the last couple of games by making these three’s is huge,” Wade stated. “He’s not guardable when he’s making threes like this, three for six tonight.”
Wade highlighted the contrast between halves, stating that this team would be a force if they could together two halves like the first one. And with a 15- point lead and a total of 22 points given up, along with the 20-point lead and 16 points given up in the first half on Tuesday, it’s hard to argue with that.
Despite the second half collapse, this was still a huge win for the Tigers, who had previously lost two of their last three home games along with six of their last eight. The team is picking a pristine time to start winning again, as the end of the season approaches rapidly.
