GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
It doesn’t matter how bad Oklahoma and now South Carolina may be. LSU is on a roll regardless of the fiber of its last two opponents, and now probably thinks it can play with No. 2 Florida on Saturday.
And that’s all that matters.
The Tigers won a second straight game for the first time since December on Tuesday night – 81-67 over South Carolina in front of 7,403 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center and look like a brand new team. So what if South Carolina is 10-16 and 0-13 for last in the Southeastern Conference, and Oklahoma – which LSU beat 82-79 on Saturday – is 16-10 and 3-10 after losing 85-63 to Florida on Tuesday night.
LSU (14-12, 3-10) is hot with the Gators (23-3, 10-3) coming in that way, too, for a 5 p.m. game Saturday at the Assembly Center on the SEC Network.
The Tigers, a weak 3-point shooting team for most of the SEC season, shot a SEC season-best 43.3 percent from beyond the arc, hitting 13 of 30 after making 11 at Oklahoma. LSU also shot a SEC season-high 50 percent from the field (31 of 62).
CAM CARTER HAD TWO 4-POINT PLAYS AND TWO 3-POINT PLAYS AT OKLAHOMA
Senior guard Cam Carter led the way with 17 points on 7-of-14 shooting with 3 of 7 from 3-point range.
“For four halves now at Oklahoma the other night and tonight, really played the right way offensively,” LSU coach Matt McMahon said. “Great spacing, unselfishness. Execution much improved, ball movement.”
And only 10 turnovers. LSU was averaging 14.2 turnovers a game just over a week ago for 324th in the nation out of 355 teams. McMahon’s newfangled four-guard offense that he tried for most of the game Saturday at Oklahoma is working as the Tigers again had great looks at the basket while squared up correctly and in the flow with frequent extra passes.
“Decision making really good. Shot quality really high,” McMahon said. “And we were very disruptive on defense. I was really proud of the players’ performance, but also the preparation.”
LSU KEEPING MATT MCMAHON AND WILL ENHANCE NIL FUNDS
The result was a fast and easy win like LSU just hasn’t seen since non-conference play in December. The Tigers never trailed after a 2-0 deficit and went up 25-16 on a Daimion Collins jumper with 8:14 to go in the first half. That grew to as wide as 36-20 before a 41-27 lead at the half.
South Carolina never could catch up and fell behind by 66-46 with 9:26 left on a Jordan Sears 3-pointer. LSU’s biggest lead was 69-48 at the 8:57 mark on 3-pointer by Mike Williams III, who finished with 14 off the bench on 4-of-5 shooting with 3 of 4 from 3-point range.
“Our biggest thing this year has been not putting together two halves,” Williams said. “We finally did it these last two games.”
Vyctorius Miller scored 12 with four assists, two steals and one turnover. Dji Bailey was LSU’s fourth player in double figures with 11. Collins scored eight points with seven rebounds, three assists, two blocked shots and a steal. Nine Tigers scored in all. Jamari Thomas led the Gamecocks with 23.
LSU will have to match its performances against Oklahoma and South Carolina and then a lot more than that to have a chance against the Gators.
“They’re really good,” McMahon said. “They’ll present a lot of problems with their physicality on the glass. But then their guards are so good. They shoot it so well from three. I’m going to watch a lot of film tonight, but this (4-guard offense) is the direction for us right now. There’ll be times when we need to go bigger because of Florida’s size. Just got to keep getting better. We know it’s going to be a heck of a challenge on Saturday.”
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