Butch Pierre’s stint as LSU interim head coach ended Thursday with a first-round exit from the Southeastern Conference tournament in Atlanta. Now the question remains whether LSU will bring him back next season as the permanent head coach. “I’ll be coaching somewhere,” Pierre said laughing. “One of the things about Butch Pierre is that I’m a very confident person, confident coach … I’m just going to get back home with my wife and my family and talk about things and see what happens.” Pierre thanked LSU and the administration for his first head coaching opportunity in a 22-year coaching career. “I loved it. I enjoyed it,” Pierre said. The Tigers (13-18, 6-11) opened the tournament Thursday against South Carolina (14-17, 5-11) at noon, and two hours later the Gamecocks walked off the court with the 77-73 victory and a quarterfinals date with Tennessee today. The Tigers had a chance to tie the game at 76 with 13 seconds remaining, but junior guard Marcus Thornton came up empty on a 3-point attempt. Junior center Chris Johnson pulled down the offensive rebound, but the Gamecocks swarmed him and forced a turnover. South Carolina junior guard Zam Frederick hit a free throw to put the Gamecocks up 77-73 with three seconds left, and Thornton could not get off a final 3-point attempt before time expired. “I felt like I had enough space to get it off,” Thornton said in a news release. “I thought – like I shoot every shot – I thought it had a chance of going in. Obviously it didn’t.” The fact the Tigers even had a chance to tie the game with 13 seconds took a valiant effort. After the teams battled back and forth for most of the game, the Gamecocks opened the game’s largest lead of 12 points with just more than three minutes remaining. South Carolina was still up 12 points with less than a minute and a half remaining when LSU junior guard Terry Martin kicked off a late LSU run with a 3-pointer. “In typical fashion, we made it interesting at the end,” said South Carolina coach Dave Odom. “We rarely ever win with ease, going away looking over our shoulder into the sunset.” LSU sophomore guard Alex Farrer capped the 12-3 LSU run with a 3-pointer to cut the South Carolina lead to 76-73 with 22 seconds left. Those were the final points LSU scored. “I’m proud of our guys, the way we fought through a time of adversity and put ourselves in a position where we had an opportunity to … win it,” Pierre said. Each team had five players score in double-digits, led by LSU freshman forward Anthony Randolph’s 22 points. Randolph also grabbed eight rebounds in his final game before an offseason of speculation about his future – whether he will return for another season at LSU or declare early for the NBA draft. Following the game, Randolph said once again LSU’s choice of its next head coach will affect whether he stays or goes. “Coach Pierre has been a great mentor to me on and off the court,” Randolph said. “Yeah, [the coaching decision] is going to affect my decision. But like I said earlier, I love playing with my team and my teammates, and as you can see I’m having fun out there.” Junior guard Garrett Temple again did a good job defending South Carolina’s leading scorer, sophomore guard Devan Downey. Temple held Downey, who averages 18.3 points per game, to six points for most of the game. But Downey found other ways to help the Gamecocks until doubling his scoring after Temple picked up his fourth foul with 6:20 left in the game. “I don’t have to score the basketball,” Downey said. “I scored so much early in the year, now when I don’t score people think something’s wrong. But, like coach said, you don’t have to score to have a good game.” Downey tied a career high with 11 assists and gathered seven rebounds to go along with his 12 points.
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