Coming off one of its bigger wins in recent history after defeating then No. 13 ranked West Virginia, No. 25 LSU proved sluggish in its return home.
The Tigers (3-0) fell to unranked Houston Tuesday night in the PMAC, breaking their three-game winning streak to begin the season. The Cougars 84-83 win is their third consecutive win over the Tigers.
Coach John Brady said the team played well enough to win despite suffering the loss.
“It’s disappointing to lose,” Brady said. “But offensively, I thought we did enough to win.”
After falling behind 5-0 in the opening minutes, LSU came back with a run of its own, scoring seven unanswered points in taking a two point lead.
Houston and LSU would continue to exchange shots with neither team taking a lead of larger than four points.
Following a free throw by senior Darrel Mitchell at the 7:37 mark, LSU would reel off a 26-14 run to finish the half leading 43-31.
The Cougars came out on a roll in the second half, outscoring LSU 16-3 in the first four minutes to take its first lead since the 18:27 mark in the first half.
Houston would not relinquish the lead for the rest game, extending its largest margain at the 3:39 mark leading 68-75.
With LSU down 83-78 with 28 seconds remaining, sophomore Glen Davis nailed a jumpshot to pull within three and just three seconds remaining in the game.
One free throw by Houston’s Brian Lathman for the four-point lead proved to be the difference. Tyrus Thomas’ desperation half-court shot ended the game with LSU losing by one point.
“We’re still in a learning curve,” Brady said. “We’re just not there yet.”
LSU finished the game shooting 58.2 percent from the field despite shooting just 51.9 percent from the foul line.
Freshman Tasmin Mitchell, who finished with 18 points and six rebounds, said sloppy free-throw shooting hurt the team in the end.
“We missed a lot of free-throws down the line,” he said. “We just have to get at it and get better at the free throw line. We have to focus more on free-throws in practice.”
Aside from the free-throws, Houston’s three point-shooting in the second half played a major role in the Cougars’ win. Houston finished shooting 56.5 percent on the game, including 6 of 9 shooting by Baton Rouge native Oliver Lafayette. Lafayette led the Cougars with 32 points.
Darrel Mitchell said the man to man defense was strong, but Houston simply made some uncharacteristic shots.
“They were hitting shots with hands in their faces,” D. Mitchell said. “It’s frustrating to play strong defense for 30 seconds for those guys to turn around and hit a crazy shot.”