LSU sleepwalks early again, wakes up too late again, in loss at Vanderbilt

Vanderbilt led the Tigers by 21 points in the second half and survived a 16-0 LSU run for a 75-66 Commodores’ Southeastern Conference victory in Memorial Gymnasium.

Sparked by 13 3-pointers – the most Vandy has made this season and the most LSU has allowed – the Commodores (12-10, 4-6 SEC) led by 18 at halftime. The Tigers (16-7 overall, 4-6) lost for the sixth time in the last seven games including 1-5 in their last six SEC outings.

“There’s different issues on different things,” LSU coach Will Wade explained of the Tigers’ death spiral. “Some of it is health but we can’t blame it all on that when everybody’s got some issues.

“We didn’t get an offensive rebound in the first half. That's an effort issue. We don't follow the details on the scouting report, give up 11 threes, two of their best shooters. That's a detail issue, too. So, it's a little bit of both.”

It didn’t matter that LSU held Vandy guard Scottie Pippen Jr., the SEC’s leading scorer, to 7 points on 2 of 12 field goals including 0-of-6 3-pointers. He also had 9 assists (three more than LSU’s team total) because he had his choice of unguarded teammates bombing the Tigers from the outside.

Vandy guard Rodney Chatman, a graduate transfer from Dayton, almost equaled his career high with 24 points including 6 of 10 3’s. Sophomore forward Myles Stute added 17 points including 5 of 8 3’s.

“He's a winner,” Vanderbilt coach Jerry Stackhouse said of Chatman. "Nothing against our guys, but just over the last two years we hadn't put a lot of wins in the column. We've lost a lot of close games. Sometimes to get over that hump, you have to have an influx of winners in there, and that's Rodney.”

Wade was miffed that his players didn’t follow the game plan of stopping Vandy’s 3-point barrage.

“Stute’s shooting 41 percent coming into the game and we leave him wide open,” Wade lamented. “Chatman’s a 35 percent career 3-point shooter, we leave him wide open. You’re not beating any teams doing that.”

Sophomores Tari Eason and Eric Gaines led LSU with 16 and 14 points respectively. Senior forward Darius Days recorded his third straight double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds.

Even though Vanderbilt edged LSU in field goal percentage 45.6 to 44.7 with the Tigers making 11 more free throws (21 of 29) than the Commodores (10 of 17), Vandy outscoring LSU 39 to 9 from 3-point range was too much to overcome.

LSU’s semblance of looking like a well-oiled unit lasted the first five minutes of the game. The Tigers moved the ball offensively, hit 5 of their first 6 shots and led 11-6.

Then, the Tigers’ offense dissipated into a jumbled mess, their defense was a step late and the Commodores carved up LSU with superior shooting and cutting. Vandy swished five straight shots, LSU missed 9 of 10 and a 13-2 Commodores’ run pointed the home team toward its highest scoring half this season.

In a six-minute stretch, Vanderbilt scored seven baskets and five of them were 3-pointers as Vandy took a 43-25 lead at halftime. The Commodores pounded LSU in rebounding so bad the Tigers failed to get an offensive rebound in the first 20 minutes.

Vanderbilt built a 21-point lead at 69-48 with 9:47 before the Tigers’ full-court press produced six Commodores’ turnovers and 16 straight points to cut the Vandy lead to 69-64 with 4:19 left.

But the Commodores stemmed LSU’s rally with Chatman’s final 3-pointer of the day off a no-look Pippen pass. The Tigers missed their last four of five shots and were done.

LSU and its three consecutive losses travel to Texas A&M and its six-game losing streak Tuesday night at 6 p.m. The Tigers' last win before their current trio of straight defeats was a 70-64 decision over the Aggies on Jan. 26 in Baton Rouge.

“We need better play from a lot of folks,” Wade said. “What we're doing is not, it's not good enough. It's not good enough on a lot of fronts. We need a lot of guys to step up and certainly play better as we kind of work our way through this slump.”