The LSU Tiger basketball squad, without second-leading scorer Collis Temple III, were outmatched by the big men of Ole Miss in last night’s 70-55 loss at Oxford, Miss.
Six-foot-eight forward Justin Reed and six-foot-seven forward Aaron Harper worked the Tigers inside for 18 and 16 points, respectively.
“We can’t guard [Reed and Harper] straight up,” LSU head coach John Brady said. “Reed’s too good for us around the goal. That’s one of our deficiencies. They did a nice job of attacking us where it’s not our strength.”
The loss marks the fifth straight for the Tigers away from the friendly walls of the PMAC where they have won 11 straight.
LSU (12-6, 2-3 Southeastern Conference) remained close to Ole Miss (15-4, 4-2 SEC) in the first half, but fell behind quickly in the second when the Rebels’ offense began to roll.
“Honestly, I thought in the first half we played well,” Brady said. “We played hard and we did the things that were necessary to keep the game tight.”
From the free-throw line, the Tigers struggled mightily, going 0-of-7 in the first half and 8-of-18 for the game.
The Tigers also had trouble in their half-court offense due to the pressure man-to-man defense of the Rebels.
Brady said the subtle things like missing free throws and easy shots played a big factor in the loss.
“There’s a lot of things that we did pretty well, but we weren’t good enough tonight,” he said. “In the opportunities that we did have to tie the game or take the lead, we weren’t able to do it.”
Forward Ronald Dupree led all Tiger scorers with 13 points followed by forward Brad Bridgewater with 10 points.
Freshman guard Antonio Hudson, who started in place of Temple, also chipped in eight points for LSU.
Momentum seemed to swing to Ole Miss with the sounding of the buzzer for halftime.
After LSU forward Jermaine Williams missed a short jumper, Rebel guard Jason Harrison hustled downcourt to drain a three just as time expired.
The Rebels carried their excitement into the second half as they made the first five points to take a 14-point lead from which they never looked back.
“[Ole Miss] came out in the second half and we didn’t execute the play to start the half like we needed to,” Brady said. “They scored, we fouled them and they stretched the lead.”
LSU soon fell behind by 20 before cutting the lead down to 11 with under ten minutes left to play.
“To our team’s credit, we got it back where it’s workable a little bit,” Brady said. “But we just weren’t good enough to overcome an Ole Miss team that I thought played really well tonight.”
The Tigers will continue without Temple in SEC road play with a match against Mississippi State Saturday.
LSU may have trouble against Bulldog forward Mario Austin, who is averaging 20.4 points per game in conference play and 16.3 points per game overall.
Saturday’s match in Starkville, Miss. will tip off at 4 p.m.