JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – LSU sophomore guard Tremont Waters knew the deluge would come sooner or later.

Since Waters grew up next to the Yale campus playing on an AAU team with a couple of Bulldogs’ players, he was aware Yale’s 3-point shooting could heat in a blink.

After missing their first 28-of-32 3’s, the Bulldogs made 4-of-5 in a 29-second span in the final minute Thursday before LSU’s almost-perfect clutch free throw helped the Tigers escape with a 79-75 East Regional victory here in VyStar Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

LSU made its last 9-of-10 free throws to improve to 27-6 and advance to Saturday’s second round against Maryland, a 79-77 winner over Belmont.

“We have to come out and play like it’s our last game,” Waters said of LSU’s second half swoon that nearly allowed Yale to complete what would have been a crushing, season-ending defeat for the Tigers. “Next time, we’ve got to buckle down and not let them shoot wide open 3s.”

The SEC champion Tigers led from start to finish except for 13 seconds when the game was tied,. LSU allowed 45 points in the second half after scoring 45 in the first half. Yale cut the LSU lead to four points three times and to three points twice in the final 30 seconds, including trailing 77-74 with 12 seconds left.

But LSU junior guard Skylar Mays dropped in two free throws with seven seconds remaining and the Tigers finally exhaled.

“I thought that we had to get some stops,” LSU interim coach Tony Benford said of the frantic final minutes. “That's what I kept preaching to our guys, hey, we've got to keep our poise and we've got to make sure we get stops down the stretch. They (Yale) hit some tough shots, but we made our free throws.”

Mays led LSU with 19 points. Waters added 15 points and seven assists. Freshman forward Naz Reid had 14 points and 10 rebounds and center Kavell Bigby-Williams contributed 10 points, 10 rebounds and four blocked shots.

Yale (22-8) was led by senior guard Alex Copeland, who scored a game-high 24 points.

“We obviously didn't shoot the ball as well as we'd like to or as well as we have in the past, but the energy and effort was there,” said Yale coach James Jones, whose team finished shooting 32.5 percent from the field compared to LSU’s 45.9. “You've got to tip your hat to LSU for holding onto a lead and knocking down its free throws.”

Aside from the Bulldogs’ closing flurry of 3s, the Tigers actually played stout defense in a couple of areas.

Yale guard Miye Oni, the Ivy League’s Player of the Year, was held to just five points by LSU junior guard Marlon Taylor.

“Oni is a really good player, he's a pro prospect,” Benford said, “and I thought Marlon did a really good job of really being there on the catch and making it difficult for him to get to the rim. He challenged his three-point shots really well.”

Also, the length and aggressiveness of the 6-11 Bigby-Williams, who blocked two Yale layups in the game’s first two minutes, made the Bulldogs think twice about driving to the basket. He altered plenty of shots and forced Yale to attempt 37 3s, more than half of its total 72 field goal attempts.

“I feel like my defensive presence made a difference,” Bigby-Williams said. “I went out there with the mindset I wanted to block every shot.”

The Tigers fired off the starting line, grabbing a 9-0 lead that grew to 45-29 at halftime.

“I'd just say we were aggressive and we had a great game plan getting into the paint and using our size advantage, and Naz did a great job getting in the paint,” Mays said of LSU’s opening half. “Tremont was all over the place, and all these guys did a great job.”

From game’s first 2:38 after Yale missed its first six shots including a pair of blocks by Bigby-Williams, it was obvious the Ivy League tourney champs would have trouble with the Tigers’ length.

Yale also initially struggled with LSU’s quickness. The Bulldogs had no one defensively who could stay in front of Waters, who slithered his way to 13 first-half points while dealing six assists (two more than Yale’s team total).

The only things that kept Yale within striking distance in the game’s first 10 minutes were 3-pointers and free throws. LSU led 21-19 with 10:16 left in the opening half, and 15 of Yale’s points were three 3’s threes and six free throws.

LSU’s biggest win of the first half was committing just four fouls. Once the Tigers overcame their eagerness of trying to block every Yale shot – a natural course of action for a team that knew it has a superior athletic advantage – they settled in and played solid defense.

That defense eroded slightly in the opening 10 minutes of the second half. It also didn't help the Tigers during that stretch that they missed 10 field goals, clanked four free throws and committed four turnovers.

The Tigers allowed Yale to get in its preferred running tempo, leading to the Bulldogs to a scoring run that cut LSU’s lead bit-by-bit.

But Yale couldn't quite get across the finish tape first.

“Through that stretch we were really doing a good job on defense,” Yale senior forward Blake Reynolds said. “We were switching the ball screens and I think that kind of frustrated them (LSU).

“That's a portion of the game that I'm going to think about a lot, looking back on it, that we couldn't quite take the lead or quite get over the hump there. Hats off to LSU. They played solid defense, and they held us limited on offense there during that stretch.”