LSU caught a glimpse of the defensive style their offense will face on a regular basis against Southeastern Conference foes when it clashed with Southern Mississippi Saturday afternoon in the PMAC.
USM’s zone defense kept the Tigers at bay for the majority of the game, but was not enough to keep LSU from winning its sixth consecutive game, 65-50.
“We are going to see some zone this year because people are going to come in here with the emphasis to stop Brandon Bass and stop Jaime Lloreda and make somebody else on our team win the game besides those two guys,” LSU coach John Brady said of the top LSU scorers.
Bass, who scored 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting, and Lloreda (15 points with 16 rebounds) had to work hard for every point with both players getting double and tripled teamed.
“What I told our team after the game is that everybody we play will see this tape and until we get consistent play from our point guard to our two’s and our three’s, people are going to put four guys around our two big guys and not let them catch the ball,” Brady said of the offense. “And we are going to really have to execute against the zone because they are going to force us into making some 17-footers.”
The LSU perimeter players did little to help their big men, hitting on only 2-of-23 (8.7 percent) from behind the arc.
“There is going to be a point in time where we are going to have make at least six, seven or eight three’s to keep that zone balanced out as opposed to taking one step closer to the goal every time,” Brady said.
Junior point guard Xavier Whipple had one of the Tigers’ 3-pointers and said the guards were getting open shots, but were just unable to knock them down.
“Every time I shot I felt like it had a chance, but I guess it was just one of those days that a team shoots poorly,” said Whipple, who had 10 points and four assists. “I do not think we will have a game where we shoot this bad again. At least I hope not anyway.”
Lloreda was held in check for the first 35 minutes of the game scoring only six points, but broke out over the final five minutes to propel the Tigers to victory. Lloreda scored nine points during a 13-7 LSU run over the final 5:38 to seal the win.
“In the end I knew I could not create my own shot because they were collapsing on me in the paint,” Lloreda said. “So I decided just to get the offensive rebound. That was the only way I could make a basket.”
The LSU defense picked up the slack for the struggling offensive effort, holding USM to 28.6 percent shooting from the field.
“We have a lot of athletic guys that can get out and guard,” Whipple said. “That is really one of the things that we want to do, be one of the tough defensive team’s in the country. And I feel like we can do that with the guys that we have.”
The Tigers’ next game will be 7 p.m. Tuesday in the PMAC against Tulane.