The LSU men’s basketball team’s hopes of garnering an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament may have come to an end Tuesday night in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Despite a 23-point performance from freshman forward Ben Simmons and a 22-point outing from freshman guard Antonio Blakeney, their efforts were not enough as the Tigers were dealt an 85-65 loss to Arkansas at Bud Walton Arena.
Already sitting on the outside looking in of the NCAA tournament, the Tigers (16-12, 9-6 Southeastern Conference) shot a dismal 35.1 percent from the field, 29.2 percent from three-point territory and 18-of-29 from the free throw line. In its third straight defeat and worst loss since the 2014 SEC tournament, LSU allowed 48 points in the paint and were outscored 32-0, in bench points.
“We’re averaging around 75-80 points a game,” said LSU coach Johnny Jones in a postgame radio interview. “We only scored 65 tonight and only shot 35 percent. That’s not going to be good enough against good teams.”
Meanwhile, the Razorbacks (13-14, 6-8 SEC) had five different players in double figures while shooting 54.1 percent from the field and 42.1 from three-point territory. LSU trailed just by one possession at the end of the first half but was outscored 51-33 in the second period, connecting on just 9-of-30 attempts.
“You can’t give up that many points that close to the rim,” Jones said. “That’s what will allow a team to shoot 60 something percent on you from the field. We didn’t do a good job of defending on the block. We allowed easy catches in there, and our post guys just didn’t do an adequate enough job of making them play up over the top or making them catch it in a zone that they weren’t comfortable operating in.”
LSU entered halftime down by just two, highlighted by a 10-0 run to erase a slow shooting start.
After falling behind, 25-16, on Razorback sophomore guard Anton Beard’s layup with 8:07 left in the first half, sophomore forward Craig Victor scored five straight points. After a triple from Tiger sophomore guard Jalyn Patterson, Simmons’ layup gave LSU a one-point lead, its first and only of the game.
But almost immediately after grabbing the lead, Victor picked up his second foul at the 4:26 mark of the second half, allowing the Razorback to stretch their lead back out to five points.
LSU was able to respond, closing the gap to 34-32 by the end of the period. However, the Tigers’ first-half scoring was dominated by Blakeney, Victor and Simmons, who combined to score 29 of the 32 points.
Patterson was the only other LSU player who scored in the first half, and the team had eight turnovers while shooting 40.7 percent from the field and 25 percent from beyond the arc up to that point.
By the first media timeout of the second half, Arkansas had an eight-point lead and took an 11-point advantage thanks to junior guard Dusty Hannahs’ trey after the break.
LSU hung around, trailing by just nine points by 7:48 mark of the second. But the Razorbacks regained a double-digit lead and would lead by at least 13 points for the rest of the game.
“The first half, our guys did a good job of staying connected and playing hard on the defensive end of the floor,” Jones said. “As the second half wore on, they made a couple plays early. We get back in the game, cut it to one or two points, and then defensively we had some breakdowns.”
Simmons, who had 12 rebounds and six assists, also fouled out with 2:02 left in the game, finishing the game 11-of-18 from the free throw line.
Jones pointed to the 6-of-6 clip from Razorback sophomore forward Trey Thompson, who averaged just three points per game entering tonight, and the 17 second-half points from junior forward Moses Kingsley as signs of poor post play.
“When you play a team like this, who is hungry, plays well at home and made some plays, we didn’t keep the score close enough to keep enough pressure on those guys,” Jones said. “They got pretty comfortable in the second half.”
The Tigers received virtually no scoring production from Patterson and junior guard Tim Quarterman, as the two combined to shoot 3-of-19 from field in 37 and 36 minutes of action, respectively.
“We had two of our guards tonight go 3-for-19, and that’s tough for us on the road,” Jones said. “They’re guys who are very capable shooters. When they still go 3-for-14 from the three-point line, it’s not enough — not good enough to beat good teams. We’ve got to get better productivity from those guys, as well, and we’ve got make sure we get a good balance.”
LSU’s NCAA tournament chances diminish with 85-65 road loss to Arkansas
February 23, 2016
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