It wasn’t pretty, but overall it was a successful senior night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center as the LSU men’s basketball team defeated Missouri, 80-71 Tuesday night. The Tigers finished the regular season with a 15-3 record at home.
Tiger seniors Keith Hornsby, Henry Shortess and Josh Gray all received nice ovations from the PMAC crowd before the game. LSU (18-12, 11-6 Southeastern Conference) dominated in the first half before holding off a second-half Missouri rally in its second win in a row after losing its previous three games.
“We knew coming in against Missouri, a team that had two games left on their schedule, how hard they would play, and that’s what they’ve been able to do throughout the year,” LSU head coach Johnny Jones said. “They had big upsets against South Carolina, a really tough team to beat, at Tennessee handily and other games they fought through. There’s been some tough games, and tonight we felt it would be the same. I thought our guys did a great job of taking that message.”
LSU broadcasting icon Jim Hawthorne received the loudest cheers of the night during halftime. Tonight was Hawthorne’s last ever on-campus broadcast as he will retire from his job as LSU’s football, basketball and baseball play-by-play man after being on the air for over 30 years.
The Tigers came out with a lot of energy in the first half and played efficient basketball. They committed just three team fouls in the first period and had had just six turnovers at the intermission compared to Missouri’s 13.
However, the second half was a different story entirely as Missouri (10-20, 3-14 SEC) cut the lead to as little as 3 after trailing 46-24 at halftime. Kevin Puryear, Ryan Rosburg and Terrence Phillips led the comeback bid for Missouri with a team-high 13 points apiece.
Missouri outscored LSU 47-34 in the second half as LSU just narrowly avoided giving up 50 second-half points in consecutive home games. The Tigers did just enough to hold on after seeing their 22 point lead dwindle down to a one-possession margin.
“In the second half, you have to commend Missouri,” Jones said. “They did a great job coming out, executing their offense and making plays. We didn’t do a great job on the offensive end. We were a little loose early on, and then [we were] not knocking down shots. I think we fed into what Missouri was doing. We’re pleased we were able to finish the right way and execute down the stretch the last four minutes.”
Ben Simmons put on another stellar performance in what could be his last home game at LSU. Simmons flirted with a triple double, posting 22 points, 14 rebounds and 7 assists in his fifth straight game with 20 points, the longest such stretch of the season for him.
It was also Simmons’ sixth game with at least 20 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. The star freshman heard chants of “one more year” from the LSU student section following the game.
“It’s kind of funny,” Simmons said of the chants with his teammates snickering on the podium beside him. “It’s funny just because it’s the final game here. But, we’ll see what happens.”
Antonio Blakeney continued his solid play as of late. The reigning co-SEC freshman of the week had 11 points at halftime and finished with 18 on 5-11 shooting, including a momentum-shifting three pointer to double LSU’s lead after Missouri cut it to 3 with 4:30 remaining in regulation.
The shooting guard has come on strong lately as the season has been winding down, scoring in double digits in 7 out of the last 8 games.
“He’s very confident in himself. His teammates are confident in him as well,” Jones said of Blakeney. “One of the things we talked about after the game was that we probably didn’t get enough touches for him during that stretch when they made their run. We weren’t patient enough moving around the ball.”
Freshman guard Brandon Sampson didn’t score in the second half, but provided a nice spark for LSU in the first. Sampson’s eight points are as many as he had in LSU’s previous 16 games against conference opponents.
LSU finished the season 8-1 at home against the rest of the conference. The Tigers find themselves in position to finish with one of the best four records in the SEC and earn a double-bye in the SEC tournament as one of the top four seeds.
However, to do so the Tigers may need a win in Lexington on Saturday against John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats. LSU hasn’t won there since 2009.
The Tigers may also need to win several games in this year’s SEC tournament or win it outright to earn a berth in the NCAA tournament.
“At the end of the day we’re 8-1 in conference play here at home,” Jones said. “I think that’s something to be excited about, and this time of year, we’re only one game out of first place. We have an opportunity to go to Lexington, Kentucky to play against one of the top teams in the country on Saturday.”