LSU dominated in second half in 89-58 loss to Texas

BATON ROUGE, La. – A dominating second half by the Texas Longhorns led to an 89-58 victory over LSU Saturday evening at the Maravich Center.

LSU falls to 12-9 and 1-7 in the SEC, while Texas moves to 15-7 and 4-5 in league play. The Tigers will play Georgia at 8 p.m. CT on Wednesday, Feb. 5, inside Stegeman Coliseum in Athens, Ga.

After trailing by six points at the half, the Longhorns outscored the Tigers 58-33 in the second half to pull away. LSU shot 45.1 percent in the game (23-of-51) but only 2-of-15 from deep and was 66.7 percent at the free throw line (10-of-15). The Longhorns shot 56.3 percent from the floor (36-of-64) and 10-of-21 from 3-point range (47.6%).

Jordan Sears led LSU with 13 points (6-of-12), including one of the team’s 3-point field goals, and had three rebounds and one steal.

Tre Johnson and Tramon Mark paced Texas with 18 points each. Kadin Shedrick added 16 points, and Arthur Kaluma chipped in 10.

The Longhorns opened the game with a 14-6 lead, shooting 5-of-9 from the floor, but the Tigers pieced together a 7-2 run, making it a one-possession game at 16-13 with 10:22 on the clock.  Texas accelerated and stretched its lead to 24-15 at the 7:37 media timeout. However, LSU cut its deficit to three points at 26-23 behind a 6-0 run before Texas bumped its margin back to 31-23. After four scoreless minutes for the Tigers, Robert Miller III made a layup with 53 seconds remaining, and the home team went into the half trailing, 31-25.

In the opening 20 minutes, both teams shot 41.4 percent from the floor on 12-of-29 shooting and had 10 points in the paint. However, Texas shot 4-of-10 from the 3-point line, while LSU shot 1-of-10. Texas also had 10 second-chance points on six offensive rebounds.

Two early LSU turnovers aided Texas to a double-figure lead, and the Tigers signaled for a 30-second timeout, trailing 43-31 with 15:34 on the game clock. The Longhorns’ lead ballooned to 19 points at 52-33 behind a 13-2 run that featured 10 unanswered points, and the visiting team pushed their lead to as many as 33 points in the 89-58 victory.

Although LSU shot 45.1 percent from the field in the second half (11-of-22), Texas shot a blistering 68.6 percent on 24-of-35 shots, including a 54.5 clip from 3-point range (6-of-11).

*LSU press release

LSU postgame quotes

LSU head coach Matt McMahon

Opening Statement…

“Obviously, congratulations to Texas for their second half performance. Incredibly disappointed we weren’t able to respond better coming out of the break. In the first half, offensively, we struggled, but I thought defensively we were dialed in. We forced some difficult shots. We’re right there in a six-point game coming out of the break. And then just the turnovers, once again, that led to some easy scores for them in transition that got the lead up to 10. And then I thought their offensive execution was elite and their shot making was fantastic and we weren’t able to respond either defensively or on our offensive end of the floor.”

On LSU’s rebounding performance…

“On the offensive glass, we were non-existent. There were plenty of missed shots to pursue. We only got four there. I think that speaks to the energy that we played with on the glass there. Defensively, we gave up 10 second-chance opportunities. There weren’t many misses for them in the second half, so there weren’t many defensive rebound opportunities when you’re taking the ball out of the net every trip.”

On his post-game message to the team…

“I just apologized for not having them ready to play, especially in the second half. Just disappointed. You know, you look at the last four games I really thought we had made a lot of progress. The win here against Arkansas, the competitiveness and the fight at A&M, at Alabama, and then against Auburn here at home. And then to really take those steps backward in the second half is disappointing. It’s my responsibility. Didn’t have them ready to go and got to get to work and figure out some ways to fix it.”

LSU Guard Jordan Sears
On bouncing back after a loss …
“Obviously we do not like losing like this, but we can not dwell on the loss. We have to continue to move forward and practice and scout, preparing for the next group of guys that we are going against. Especially with this league, you can not dwell on the losses, it is going to keep turning over like it has been. We just have to figure out what is going on for the next game and try to execute better moving forward from here.”