LSU tipped off its Southeastern Conference schedule on a sour note Wednesday night behind the team’s worst shooting performance of the season.
The Tigers (7-8, 0-1) shot 21.2 percent from the floor – less than half of Mississippi State’s 48.0 percent field goal shooting – in their 61-39 home loss to the Bulldogs.
“It wasn’t like we were taking a lot of bad shots,” said senior guard Dameon Mason. “We got lots of good shots; we just couldn’t put [any] in the basket.”
The Tigers’ worst shooting night this season prior to the SEC opener was a 31.0 percent showing on the road against Wichita State in December.
Junior guard Marcus Thornton and freshman forward Anthony Randolph were the only Tigers to reach double figures with 12 and 10 points, respectively.
Thornton’s 12-point performance tied his scoring output against Wichita State for LSU’s lowest leading scoring total in a game this season.
“The last couple games I haven’t been shooting the ball too well; you know, I just have to block all the other stuff out my mind and keep going on,” Thornton said. “And [junior guard Terry Martin] has been getting to the rack, but his shot hasn’t been falling.”
Thornton and Martin shot 2-for-14 and 2-for-11 from the field, respectively, including Thornton’s 2-for-6 and Martin’s 0-for-4 3-point shooting.
Thornton’s two 3-pointers were the team’s only made shots from behind the arc in an abysmal 11.8 percent shooting display from deep.
The two long balls came back-to-back shot attempts and closed LSU’s deficit to 25-19 at the half.
Randolph opened the second half by completing a three-point play to bring the Tigers the closest they had been since Mississippi State led 4-2 only 1:36 into the game.
Randolph’s play was followed by nearly three scoreless minutes before Bulldogs’ freshman guard Phil Turner made a lay up.
Mississippi State never looked back, doubling the Tigers’ scoring the remainder of the game.
“If you tell me before the game that that’s the amount of points Mississippi State scores, I like our chances to win,” LSU coach John Brady said.
Adding to the frustration of LSU’s night was the fact that the performance did not seem to be forced by an outstanding defensive performance.
“I don’t really think that they guarded us in any special way,” Brady said. “I thought the number of shots we missed in the paint – we missed 11 shots in the paint in the first half, and I don’t know how many we missed in the second half – but the open jump shots and our inability to make a basket wears on your team as you go along.”
While the team did shoot terribly, it also managed to give up only nine turnovers – the best they have taken care of the ball to this point in the season.
But Mississippi State’s best defense perhaps came in the paint as Bulldogs’ sophomore forward Jarvis Varnado chalked up seven blocks and a career-high 17 rebounds.
“[Varnado] did disrupt a lot of our shots, and maybe we should have game-planned for him a little bit more,” said junior guard Garrett Temple.
In addition to his defensive production, Varnado tied Mississippi State junior guard Jamont Gordon with 13 points as the game’s leading scorer.
The Tigers were again without junior center Chris Johnson, who is expected to miss three to four weeks after breaking a bone in his right hand against Tulane. Junior forward Quintin Johnson, a transfer from Odessa College, received his first playing time at LSU on Wednesday after injuring his right pectoral muscle in the preseason.
Thornton did not score any points or grab any rebounds in his three minutes of play.
—–Contact Jerit Roser @ [email protected].