LSU (19-8 (7-7)) was in a solid position heading into its matchup with South Carolina (16-10 (7-7)) despite the hardships the Tigers recently endured. They had won their last three games, established a winning record in conference play, the potential to become the stand-alone fifth place team in the conference and were climbing the seedings in March Madness predictions.
Throughout the first half, it appeared the Tigers were continuing to ride the momentum they had been building over the last three games. They began the game outscoring the Gamecocks 25-11, getting to 25 points within eight minutes of play behind exceptional shooting and had already caused seven turnovers up to that point.
Then, Jermaine Couisnard happened.
Around the midway point of the first half, Couisnard scored seven points in a minute to get the Gamecocks within five. He proceeded to conclude the half with 18 points, rallying his team to inch within striking distance as they finished with just a six-point deficit.
This was heavily influential on LSU’s overall collapse and is completely related to one of the main problems in LSU’s performance: they never adjusted. Despite Couisnard being on fire, the Tigers still allowed him to shoot uncontested three’s.
He finished with 33 points, shooting 67% from the field and 50% from three. LSU did little to slow him down, as South Carolina continued to cut into the lead until they surpassed them with eight minutes to go in the game.
The Gamecocks also did a decent job of adjusting to LSU’s defense, taking better care of the ball toward the end of the first half and at the beginning of the second. They still turned the ball over 20 times, but considering they were on pace to turn the ball over around 28-30 times, that is critical.
LSU could not rely on points and momentum off turnovers, having to instead focus on obtaining those through half-court offense, which everyone who has been paying attention knows isn’t LSU’s specialty. This greatly limited LSU’s scoring, as you can probably tell from the play-by-play.
After scoring 28 points in the first 10 minutes of the game, the Tigers scored just 14 in the remainder of the period. LSU would also barely surpass 28 points in the second half with 33.
And while scoring dwindled, turnovers increased. The Tigers had eight turnovers through the last 13 minutes of the second half, which isn’t horrible in normal circumstances, but it was rough considering how tight the game got later on.
A lot of these turnovers occurred in the most critical moments, with six of them taking place whenever the scoring margin was one point. And that was not the only thing plaguing them in the trenches.
One of LSU’s most consistent problems has been free-throw shooting. The Tigers are in the lower half of the nation in overall free throw percentage and this time, that came back to bite them hard.
LSU shot an abysmal 59% (13/22) from the line while South Carolina made four more with the same amount of attempts. Meanwhile, they lost by just two points.
Free throws win and lose games, and many fans fear that the Tigers in that category will cost them when they can’t afford it. They can afford it for now, but this loss has put them in a difficult position, as they now hold a five-way tie for fifth place in the conference as opposed to being the stand-alone fifth- place team.
Head coach Will Wade credited the little things, such as them giving up an open three because they weren’t paying attention on an inbound, as being a main reason they couldn’t get it done Saturday. He also highlighted the importance of this game and how much more pressure the team is under after losing it.
“This was one of those separation games that if you want to create separation, you’ve got to win, and we didn’t get it done,” Wade stated. “We’re in a dogfight the rest of the way and we’ve got to find a way to dig some of these out.”
