As the basketball slipped away from LSU junior guard Marcus Thornton on Saturday, Tiger fans watched heartbroken as another game slipped through their team’s hands. “We were trying to hand it back off, and I was going to try to make a play at the goal,” Thornton said. “But some kind of way it got deflected before it got in my hands, and I tried to gain control of it, but the defensive player got to it first.” The defensive player, Tennessee senior guard JaJuan Smith, darted down court for a lay up to put the No. 7 Volunteers (21-2, 8-1) ahead, 47-45, with 11 seconds remaining. And the Tigers’ upset bid was over. The Tigers (8-14, 1-7) struggled to control the ball on the final play until sophomore guard Alex Farrer came up short on a 3-point attempt. Junior center Chris Johnson dunked the ball as time expired, but the backboard was already lit red, and the buzzer had sounded. Everything considered – coach John Brady’s firing Thursday, freshman forward Anthony Randolph’s playing in a knee brace and foul trouble for three starters – interim head coach Butch Pierre and the Tigers put forth a valiant effort. “I thought the guys did an excellent job carrying out the scouting report,” Pierre said. “Obviously [LSU junior guard] Garrett [Temple] did a nice job on [Tennessee senior guard Chris] Lofton.” Lofton scored only five second-half points after being held scoreless for nine minutes after halftime. But the real surprise may have been the Tigers’ ability to hold JaJuan Smith and sophomore guard Ramar Smith to a combined three points – 20 points fewer than their combined average. “To hold a Tennessee team that is so potent offensively to 47 points – defensively, there’s really nothing more you could ask for,” Temple said. The Volunteers scored a previous season-low of 66 points Jan. 22 at Kentucky and were coming off a 104-point showing Tuesday against Florida. The Volunteers shot 32 percent from the field, 26 percent from 3-point range and 27 percent from the free-throw line. The Tigers also held the Volunteers to a season-low six assists – 14 fewer than Tennessee’s season average. Offensively, Johnson led LSU with 17 points. Johnson also added a team-high four blocks and tied Randolph with a team-high eight rebounds. Besides the 47-45 final score, one negative for LSU was the Tigers’ 22 turnovers despite effectively handling Tennessee’s pressure. “All year long we never played a team that pressured us that way with full court pressure having us bring the ball up,” Pierre said. “We had to come up with some new out-of-bounds plays so we would be able to get the ball in bounds, and I thought we did a good job doing that because they called the press off.” In addition to the new plays, the team also stayed together off-campus Friday night at Embassy Suites to limit distractions. Injured junior forward Tasmin Mitchell suited up for his first game since being injured Nov. 19 as a sign of team unity and support for Pierre. “We’re a team – no matter if I’m hurt or not,” Mitchell said. Mitchell will still sit out the rest of the season and seek a medical redshirt. The season’s largest home crowd of 10,165 came out to show its support, from students chanting “Butch” as Pierre took the court prior to the game to LSU legend Collis Temple Jr. nervously walking the students’ sideline in the final minutes. But while almost everything except the score went the Tigers’ way, Garrett Temple said the small victories were not enough. “We’re not into moral victories at all,” Temple said. “We lost the game, and that’s the main point. We didn’t get a win.”
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