LSU coach Will Wade was emphatic in his press conference this week that despite an unbeaten record in SEC play, he was “sick” of the way his teams squandered big leads and held on to win instead of finishing strong.
Mission accomplished.
The Tigers dominated Alabama nearly from start to finish as five players scored in double figures in a 90-76 victory at the PMAC Wednesday.
With Emmitt Williams and Trendon Watford dominating the paint and the glass, the Tigers slowly built an 18-point halftime lead. When Alabama started to make a move midway through the second half, the Tigers answered and never allowed the tide to get closer than nine points.
Afterward Wade was asked if the game was won in practice with him pushing his players to clean up their sloppy second half play.
“We took a step forward; we looked more like we need to look and played more how we need to play,” he said. “We had a grit and determination to us. We’re beginning to take the next step. January is over and February is going to be tougher.”
LSU, which earned its first ranking in two months at No. 22 in the AP poll this week, improved to 16-4 and 7-0 in SEC play. Alabama (12-7, 4-2) had its four-game winning streak stopped.
LSU had won five of its previous seven games by two points or fewer while squandering double-digit leads. Williams had 23 points and 11 rebounds. Watford had 17 points and 15 rebounds as LSU dominated the top rebounding team in the conference, 49-31.
Skylar Mays had 18 points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals. Javonte Smart and Darius Days had 12 points each and Smart dished out four assists.
Williams energized his teammates on both ends of the court and the crowd with an active night. He scored all but six of his points in the first half and kept several balls alive for others to secure rebounds.
“Each and every game I try to bring energy,” said Williams, who connected on 8 of 12 field goal attempts and 7 of 8 free throws. “That’s my job.”
Said Mays: “He’s our enforcer, our leader on defense, our backbone. That’s something we can bank on every game.”
The seminal moment in the game came with the Tide cranking up its 3-point shooting machine at the start of the second half. The Tide hit 3 of their first 4 and another by Jaylen Forbes cut LSU’s lead to 62-53 with 13:14 left. LSU was ready.
Mays scored on a fast break layup after a steal by Aundre Hyatt and then stole the inbounds pass before missing another layup try. But Hyatt was there to flush the rebound and moments later Marlon Taylor slammed home another offensive rebound off a Darius Days miss to push LSU’s lead back to 15 points.
“We did a good job sticking to what we were doing,” Wade said. “We took some lesson from our last couple of games. First you have to build a lead and we did that slow and methodical in the first half.
LSU throttled Alabama’s 3-point shooting game, holding the Tide to 10 of 38 (26.3 percent) from beyond the arc and 30 of 73 (41.1) overall. LSU also kept Alabama off the free throw line with only 10 attempts while the Tigers sank 19 of 20, 17 of 18 in the first half.
LSU took control of the game with a 14-0 run during a span of 3:21 for a 43-25 lead. Williams scored eight points in that run, capping it with a layup with 5:47 left. Alabama missed 10 shots and was 0 for 6 from 3-point range.
Jaden Shackelford led the visitors with 21 points as he connected on 5 of 14 3-point shots. Alex Reese added 17.
Alabama coach Nate Oats tried juggling his lineup to get more height by starting Galin Smith instead of second leading scorer guard John Petty. Oats said it “backfired” as Smith played 10:45 and Petty went 1 for 7 in nearly 33 minutes. He was never a factor.
“Our effort didn’t match theirs,” Oats said. “They destroyed us on the boards. That’s two games in a row where we just can’t rebound the ball. When you give up 51 points you really dig yourself a hole against a team that plays as hard as they do.”
