Sophomore forward Ross Neltner received an early birthday present when he tipped-in a buzzer beater to defeat No. 14 Alabama 61-59 at the PMAC on Tuesday.
Neltner scored just five points in the game.
“I guess you could say I’m going out of being a teenager in style,” Neltner said, who turned 20 today. “You could play basketball for a lifetime and not have something like that happen to you. That was just one play in the game. It took 40 minutes of basketball to beat these guys.”
Alabama (21-5, 10-3 Southeastern Conference) tied the game at 59 with 14 seconds remaining on a bank-shot 3-pointer from forward Kennedy Winston.
Winston scored a game-high 22 points.
Tigers sophomore forward Brandon Bass controlled the ball on the in-bounds pass and missed a jumpshot with two seconds on the game clock before Neltner tipped-in the winning basket.
The Tigers had two timeouts remaining, but LSU coach John Brady elected not to use them.
“I thought if I called a timeout they wouldn’t let Brandon have it,” Brady said. “He kind of double-clutched one … He drew so many people to him that Ross made a great individual play and got to the basket and tipped it in. You’ve got to win some like that. It can’t all go by the book.”
Freshman forward Glen Davis pulled down a double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds, but Neltner took his place in the final seconds for defensive purposes, Brady said.
Davis, who tackled Neltner after the win, said he liked the outcome of the substitution.
“Every great player wants to be in the game when the clock’s ticking down,” Davis said. “Coach Brady made the right decision. That’s a big tip for Ross — a big tip for the team.”
Taking a 52-46 lead with 7:59 left on Neltner’s 3-pointer, LSU (16-8, 9-4 SEC) failed to score a field goal until his next basket.
The Crimson Tide gained their first lead on guard Ronald Steele’s layup with 17:01 remaining, and Alabama extended its lead to 43-39 at the 12:20 mark on guard Jean Felix’s back-to-back 3-pointers.
Felix scored 12 points, going 3-of-6 from 3-point range. Alabama shot 7-of-19 for 36 percent beyond the arc.
LSU regained the lead, 47-43, with 10 minutes left on back-to-back 3-pointers from guards Tack Minor and Darrel Mitchell, and the Tigers held their lead until Winston’s shot.
The Tigers posted their second win over a team ranked in the Associated Press, but Brady said he wants LSU to focus on their last three games, not the NCAA Tournament.
“We’re still a work in progress,” Brady said. “There’s still some things we can do better.”
The Tigers find themselves one game behind the SEC Western Division-leading Tide with a 2.5 game lead over Mississippi State, which occupies third place.
If LSU and Alabama end the season tied, the No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament will be decided upon which team has the best division record. The Tide hold a 7-1 mark in divisional play compared to LSU’s 6-2 record.
Setting the world on fire to begin the game, LSU went on a 16-3 run and led 18-5 at the 15:38 mark of the first half on Darrel Mitchell’s first 3-pointer in a week.
The Tigers hit 8 of 17 3-pointers in the game. Mitchell made three and scored 13 points.
Minor stepped up the intensity early, picking Winston’s pocket and driving the length of the floor to put LSU up 11-2. Minor scored his third career double-double and led the Tigers with 16 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists.
“We couldn’t have played any better the first seven or eight minutes,” Brady said. “I think Tack Minor has improved tremendously. He penetrated when he needed to — completed some plays.”
The Tide battled back and pulled within five points of the Tigers before Bass sank two shots from 3-point range to give LSU a 28-21 lead at the 5:33 mark of the first half.
Forward Chuck Davis finished a 7-0 run for Alabama with a jumper that tied the game at 28-28 with two minutes in the half.
That was the last score before Bass hit the game’s first buzzer-beater on an in-bounds pass with 0.8 seconds. He was fouled but missed the free-throw, and LSU led 30-28 at halftime.
Bass scored 15 points and added nine rebounds.
The Tigers went 2 of 7 from the charity stripe in the first half and connected on only 11 of 21 for 52.4 percent in the game, deviating from its conference-best 74.9 percentage for the season.
“It’s basketball. It happens,” Brady said. “Tonight we were able to win the game, kept the course, stayed true to what we needed to do.”