Second half surge pushes Ole Miss past LSU 77-65

OXFORD, MS. – The LSU Men’s Basketball team dropped their second straight SEC road game and third straight SEC game of the season 77-65 to Ole Miss on Saturday night inside Sandy and John Black Pavillion.

The Tigers fall to 11-5 overall and 0-3 in SEC play, while Ole Miss advances to 14-2 and 3-0 in SEC play.

Turnovers would plague the Tigers yet again. The Rebels recorded 23 points off the Tigers’ 17 points while the Tigers scored 11 points off of the Rebel’s 13 turnovers.

The game started with two big runs, one by each team. Again, turnovers hurt LSU in the opening minutes as Ole Miss sprinted out to a 7-0 advantage.

But then LSU began to take advantage of Ole Miss misses and mistakes and began to turn that tide. Cam Carter with a corner jumper got the Tigers going off a Jordan Sears pass and then following an Ole Miss miss, Carter returned the favor and found Sears for a three to cut the Rebel lead to 7-5.

Daimion Collins took a three-quarter length pass from Carter for a dunk that tied the game, and it was his bucket off an offensive rebound that gave LSU its first lead of the game at 9-7 at the 12:22 mark.

LSU would eventually move the lead to 15-7 on a Carter bucket off an Ole Miss turnover with 10:18 to go in the first half.

Ole Miss would go on their own run after that scoring eight straight to tie the game at 15-15 with eight minutes to play.

LSU would stay in front with a three-pointer by Carter before Ole Miss was able to tie the game on three points at 23-23 and 26-26 with 1:47 to go in the half. The Rebels would take a 28-26 first half lead on a layup by Jaemyn Brakefield with 46 seconds left. Despite letting Ole Miss take the slight lead going into halftime, head coach Matt McMahon was pleased with the defensive showing in the first half.

“In the first half, I loved our defensive fight, toughness, the effort there. And in the half court, I thought it was the best we’ve played on that end of the floor all season. We went on that 15-0 [scoring] run there where we took care of the ball, we were able to get some good looks, but the half-court defense was huge for us in the first half.”

LSU shot 35.7 percent in the half (10-of-28) and 3-of-18 from deep, but the Tigers held the Rebels to 37 percent (10-of-27) with five treys. Both teams turned the ball over in the first half with LSU making 10 but forcing nine. Both teams had seven steals, but Ole Miss had a 12-4 advantage in points off turnovers.

In the second half, the Tigers continued to turn the ball over, letting the Rebels extend their two-point first half lead. Ole Miss went on a 20-6 run in the opening minutes and never looked back. The Rebels shot a whopping 61 percent in the second half, knocking down their first three shots, going 10-of-13 to begin the half. The Ole Miss lead would grow to 17, allowing them to cruise for the remainer of the game. Turnovers are a phase of the game Coach McMahon knows they will have to improve on going forward.

“The first 4 minutes of the second half we turned it over some,” McMahon said. “I mean I hate it, but we’re going to turn it over some, but the pick-six turnovers are just back breakers for us. We’d be better off getting a shot clock violation than these turnovers out front against the pressure that are leading to transition layups.”

 Ole Miss would finish with five players in double figures.

Cam Carter led LSU with 16 points and pulled down four rebounds. Daimion Collins was very effective in the game offensively, going 6-of-8 from the field for 14 points as well as pulling down four offensive rebounds. LSU finished the game shooting 41 percent from the field (24-59) while Ole Miss shot 49 percent (27-55). Malik Dia led Ole Miss with 19 points and seven rebounds.

The Tigers are back in action on Tuesday, January 14 as they return home to take on Arkansas at 8:00 p.m. CT inside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Both teams will enter the game searching for their first win in league play.

*LSU press release