LSU can't crawl out a 16-point hole it digs at TCU, falls to Horned Frogs
One basketball team was excited to play Saturday afternoon and the other merely fulfilled its SEC/Big 12 Challenge contractual obligation.
With that in mind, here’s what LSU head coach Will Wade said after his 18th ranked team lost 77-68 at TCU.
“We’re banged up,” Wade said. “I’d just as soon forfeited, stayed home and done treatment for two days.”
Despite previously injured seniors Darius Days and Xavier Pinson returning as a starter and as a reserve with limited minutes respectively, LSU (16-5 overall, 4-4 in SEC) slogged its way through its worst defensive performance and its third coldest shooting day of the season.
TCU (14-4) shot 49.1 percent (27 of 55) from the field, the best shooting accuracy this season against the Tigers who lead the nation in field goal percentage.
“We were a step slow defensively,” Wade said. “We couldn’t stay square on the ball. We were behind the action. We gave up way too many middle drives, we got split too much."
Offensively, LSU shot just 36.9 (24 of 65) percent from the field, including missing its last 10 of 15 shots after a 20-5 Tigers’ run cut TCU’s 16-point lead to 55-54 with 9:36 left.
LSU still was in a one-possession game trailing 65-62 with 5:20 remaining. Yet TCU made its last 4 of 6 shots including two layups and a dunk while Tigers missed 6 of its last 8 shots including four 3-point attempts.
On the day, LSU missed 15 layups, which accounted for 37 percent of the Tigers’ misfired field goals.
“We missed a lot of easy stuff at the rim,” Wade said. “I thought TCU finished a lot harder shots than we missed. They had some really, really, tough finishes. We missed point-blank layups. We had to expend so much energy to get back in the game.”
Sophomore forward Tari Eason led LSU with 16 points. Days, after missing last Wednesday’s win over A&M because of a sprained ankle, had the 20th double-double of his career and ninth this season with 14 points and 12 rebounds.
Sophomore Eric Gaines, who started for the sixth consecutive game in place of injured starter Pinson, finished with 14 points, 6 assists, 3 steals and 2 turnovers, Pinson, who sprained his knee three weeks ago, finally got back on the court scoring 2 points in seven minutes.
TCU was led by senior forward Chuck O’Bannon and sophomore guard Mike Miles Jr. They scored 19 points each with O’Bannon scoring 16 second-half points and Miles scoring 8 of the Horned Frogs’ final 12 points.
“We did a really good job down the stretch handling the pressure, getting layups and using clock,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said.
LSU returns to SEC play at home vs. Ole Miss on Tuesday night at 8 p.m as the Tigers reach the halfway point of their 18-game league schedule.
After playing the Rebels, the back half of the SEC schedule features the Tigers playing consecutive road games twice and a two-game homestand once.