Despite another close call, LSU men’s basketball picked up a 72-68 win over East Tennessee State in its final game before SEC play.
The win didn’t come easy for the Tigers though, as LSU only led by two points with under 10 seconds left before two Trae Hannibal free throws put the game away. This win advances LSU to 11-1 on the season so far.
The Tigers started out the game fast, leading 37-24 at halftime and looked largely in control throughout the first half. However, the second half was a different story. LSU was outscored 44-35 and allowed East Tennessee State to shoot 54% from the field in the second half.
“I was thrilled with the improvement we made on the defensive end of the floor in the first half, unfortunately we threw it out the window in the second,” Head Coach Matt McMahon said.
LSU gave up 24 points in the paint in the second half while allowing East Tennessee State to shoot 69% from two-point range. The Tigers also had some struggles on the offensive end in the second half, shooting 14-34 from the field and just 2-11 from three-point range. McMahon mentioned these factors when talking about what went wrong in the second half and what he saw from the defense.
“I think it’s a combination of those two things [transition and ball screens] plus one other,” McMahon said. “In the first half, I thought our ball pressure bothered them and we were able to make them very uncomfortable running their half-court offense. In the second half, I didn’t see it that same way. I thought they were able to beat us off of triple penetration and hurt us there. Secondly, I think, we didn’t shoot the ball as well in the second half and we let that hurt our transition defense and they hurt us there some.”
KJ Williams once again as the driving force for the Tigers, scoring 28 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. Derek Fountain was the only other Tiger to score double figures, finishing with 11 points and grabbing eight rebounds.
LSU will return to action on Dec. 28 where it will face No. 10 ranked Arkansas at home to begin conference play. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. and the game will be streaming live on ESPN2.
