LSU basketball’s three game win streak came to an end Saturday as the Tigers fell to Stephen F. Austin 83-82.
Senior forward Aaron Epps, coming off a career performance against Houston, missed the game winning layup. But that shot didn’t exactly cost LSU the game, coach Will Wade said. 
“We lost the game well before that last play,” Wade said. “We didn’t deserve for that layup to go in. I know Epps wished it would have gone in and the team did, but the way played…we didn’t deserve that.” 
Freshman guard Tremont Waters sank a three pointer to give a 82-81 advantage with the clock winding down, but SFA’s Ivan Canete answered with a layup to put the Lumberjacks up by one. 
With 5.9 seconds on the clock and down by one, Waters brought the ball down the court as Wade opted not to call a timeout and force an attack on a scrambling defense. 
Epps’ game-winning attempt bounced off the rim and contested to a 12-of-21 on layups kind of day the Tigers were having. 
Waters took the blame and says he should have taken the shot himself or tried to draw a foul and go up for two free throws. 
“At that point I knew I had to make a play and passed the ball to Aaron,” Waters said. ” Like I said before, it’s not his fault. I should have kept going to the basket and drew the foul or do something. We haven’t been in that situation before.” 
“I wish I would have drove in and made the layup or just got fouled and just made two free throws.” 
Waters scored a team high 19 points, 12 of those coming in the second half. Sophomore guard Skylar Mays added 17 points, four rebounds and six assists. 
LSU allowed SFA to shoot 12-of-25 from beyond the arc and were outrebounded. The Tigers also gave up leads as much as nine and six in the first half.  
“We got what we deserved,” Wade said. “They played harder than us from the start. Tougher than us. We got beat because we weren’t tough enough.” 
LSU will return to the PMAC on Tuesday at 7 p.m. to take on a 6-5 Sam Houston squad.