The LSU men’s basketball team missed 11 free throws against South Carolina on Wednesday.
Coincidentally, LSU (15-9, 8-3 Southeastern Conference) lost by 11 points, 94-83, against the Gamecocks (21-3, 8-3 SEC), who remain undefeated in Colonial Life Arena after Wednesday’s controlled, well-delivered trouncing.
With the victory, South Carolina captured possession of the top seed in the SEC — along with Kentucky and LSU at 8-3 — as No. 15 Texas A&M lost against Alabama on Wednesday.
In LSU’s case, free-throw shooting and defense were the Tigers’ catalysts toward their demise in Columbia, South Carolina, allowing 94 points to the Gamecocks who average approximately 72 points per game this season.
“Scoring 83 points, that’s a lot of points,” said LSU coach Johnny Jones in a postgame interview. “But, you can’t give up 94 and expect to win.”
After 14 team fouls from both parties in the first half, LSU made an abysmal 5-of-14 free throws through the first 20 minutes, and South Carolina led 39-35 at the halfway point.
The four-point spread at intermission, though, was a win for the Tigers, Jones said.
LSU rallied to shoot 16-for-28 — 57.1 percent — from the stripe, which Jones said was the “difference” in the result.
“When you get to the line early, you’ve got to make sure you do a good job taking advantage of that. We missed too many. That was a big difference,” Jones said. “If we hit free throws in the first half, we go into the half not only with a deficit but with the lead.”
After a back-and-forth second half featuring ties and small deficits, the Tigers never grabbed the lead in the latter half from the Gamecocks.
Jones said LSU mishandled the game “down the stretch” and said the Tigers did a poor job getting freshman stars Antonio Blakeney, Ben Simmons and senior guard Keith Hornsby the ball when the trio was scoring with ease.
“We had ample opportunities to make plays down the stretch,” Jones said. “We had guys taking too many chances, trying to make plays, when all they had to do was manage it and get it to their hot guys. We didn’t manage it like we needed to down the stretch against a good team.”
Blakeney led the Tigers’ scorers with 22 points. Simmons trailed him with 20 of his own, and Hornsby finished with 14.
After a short stint of coming off the bench and following a 31-point outing against Mississippi State on Saturday, Blakeney found himself back in the starting lineup on Wednesday.
He got “hot” again, Jones said.
“You got to recognize it,” Jones said. “You got to recognize when he’s got it going on, and playing off with Hornsby, you’ve got to play off of him. We’ve got to feed him, feed him, feed him.”