LSU men’s basketball overcame Ole Miss due to one player stepping up to the plate big time in the 106-99 double overtime contest.
With both teams on losing streaks, one of them would be broken on Tuesday night. Fortunately for the Tigers, they pulled off the victory to snap their own five-game losing streak, and it was all offense the whole way up, led by one player.
LSU senior guard Max MacKinnon has had hot and cold moments all season, but as the Tigers took on the Rebels, he heated up. Before a quarter of the time left on the game clock, he scored 12 points and went 3-4 from the 3-point line.
It was only fitting that MacKinnon scored the go-ahead shot for LSU, and he did it with a layup at the beginning of the second overtime period. He also put them away with another layup and a few free-throw shots toward the end of the period.
“[MacKinnon’s] a really good screener, which I think when you have an elite shooter as Max is from behind the 3-point line, a lot of teams are trying to take him away,” head coach Matt McMahon said earlier this season. “If you can be a screener, it can really help free up your teammates, and those are a couple of things that don’t get talked about enough. I think he does that at a really high level.”
He’s had a high ceiling all season to reach his true potential, but with LSU’s inconsistent play, he has struggled alongside the rest of the team. However, on Tuesday night, he was as hot as he could get.
MacKinnon scored 33 points, leading the next highest scorer by 12 points. He went 4-for-6 from the 3-point line.
This team has faced harsh adversity early and often this season since Jalen Reed and Dedan Thomas Jr. have been out with season-ending injuries. It has had a hard time re-establishing a leader after the trusted guys went down, and this has led one player to stand up and take the brunt of the work.
On this night, that was MacKinnon, but he wasn’t alone in making waves for LSU on Tuesday night. Another player took a bit of the brunt on the other side of the ball.
MacKinnon was backed up defensively by junior Mike Nwoko. The 6-foot-1-inch junior led the defensive statistics with five defensive rebounds, one block and one steal. His size has allowed him to dominate on the court, and that has been his game all season.
He frequently experiences foul trouble, but he turned the ball over in the Tigers’ favor by finding himself at the free-throw line. However, when the game entered overtime, he had fouled out.
It’s no secret that free throws have been pivotal to LSU’s game throughout the season, and this has been massively handled by Nwoko. He’s shot 71.2% from the free-throw line entering this game, which is third on the team, but he’s second in attempts behind fifth-year senior Marquel Sutton.
Against Ole Miss, Nwoko shot 10-for-10 from the free-throw line, which was two more attempts than any other Tiger, and that was without playing in overtime.
The Tigers will take on Oklahoma to try to keep the win streak going. Tip-off will be at 5 p.m. in the PMAC.
