Southeastern entered Friday night’s game against LSU sitting at 2-5 on the year and looking for its first win over a Division I opponent, but it gave the Tigers all they could handle at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Coach Matt McMahon’s team escaped with a 73-66 win, but it wasn’t pretty. It trailed for much of the first half, though it pulled away to a seven-point lead at halftime.
It looked like the Tigers were going to put the game away for good, leading by as much as 15 in the final 20 minutes, but they never managed to put the Lions away.
After shooting 60.9% in the first half, LSU’s rate dropped to 36.4% in the second. It was also plagued by offensive sloppiness, turning it over 17 times in total and 11 in the second half.
[autotag]Will Baker[/autotag] was his usual self with 18 points, and [autotag]Jordan Wright[/autotag] and [autotag]Mike Williams III[/autotag] also had strong offensive performances with 16 and 15 points, respectively. Overall, however, the offense was far more inconsistent than McMahon would like to see.
LSU didn’t make a field goal in the final 6:56 of the game, and it had to rely heavily on its defense, which held Southeastern under 40% shooting for the game and under 30% in the second half, to get key stops down the stretch and maintain the lead.
The Tigers got the win to move to 5-3, but it was far from an encouraging performance, especially with some tough games yet to come in non-conference play.
Next up for LSU is a Kansas State team that is coming off an Elite Eight appearance. The Tigers will have eight days to work out the kinks before that game on Dec. 9.
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