Charlie Hustle
Thompson, Williams spark Tigers to win
Jermaine Williams answered the call on Senior Night as he finished out his final home game at LSU tying his season-high of 13 points to lead the Tigers (15-13, 5-10 Southeastern Conference) past the Ole Miss Rebels (19 9, 8-7 SEC) Wednesday night 59-56.
“I was really proud of our team and the way it just fought,” said LSU head coach John Brady. “[I was] thrilled to death for Jermaine Williams to play as well as he did on Senior Night.”
With 3:26 to go in the game, Williams dunked the ball to give the Tigers their first lead of the second half, a lead the Tigers never relinquished.
After a sloppy first half where the Rebels forced 12 LSU turnovers, the Tigers made the necessary adjustments at halftime and overcame a tough Ole Miss defense to win the game.
LSU shot 54.8 percent from the field for the game against the SEC’s second-best defense and moves to 9-3 when shooting at least 50 percent this season.
Brady said when the Tigers implemented their full-court press with about eight minutes to go, it energized the team and the crowd and helped the Tigers take the victory.
According to the players, sophomore walk-on Charlie Thompson’s play at point guard, and his three fouls in a 50-second span seemed to be the turning point of the game
“Everybody got kinda fired up, and jump started everybody, and we made a little run” said Thompson, who finished the game with six points and no turnovers. “I feel a lot more comfortable [at point guard] now.”
Junior forward Ronald Dupree finished with a game-high 19 points, 17 of those coming in the second half, and said Thompson’s play was one of the biggest factors of the game.
“[Thompson’s three fouls] sent a message to the whole Ole Miss squad,” Dupree said. “And we picked up our intensity on defense and came away with some big stops.”
Brady said he was proud of the way Thompson settled the team down when he came in.
“I thought Charlie Thompson looked like a nice point guard tonight in the league.” Brady said. “He had a good impact in us winning that game.”
The Rebels owned a 27-20 lead at intermission despite shooting just 29.6 percent from the field in the first half.
Ole Miss sophomore stud Justin Reed continued his great SEC play with 17 points to go along with his seven rebounds, and guard David Sanders finished the night shooting 9-of-16 from the field, including 3-of-6 from behind the arc to finish with a team-high 18 points.
With 35 seconds left in the game, LSU freshman Antonio Hudson threw an over-the-back alley-oop to Dupree on a fast break to give the Tigers a five-point lead and all the momentum.
The Tigers are now 28-3 against Ole Miss in games played in the PMAC.
“I think this is our 15th win, and it makes us 15-13 by my calculations,” Brady said. “And there’s no way, no way possible that we can have a losing season.”
A win at Auburn this Saturday will put the Tigers two games above .500 heading into the SEC Tournament and gives them a legitimate chance at receiving a postseason tournament bid.
Bryan Wideman