GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU trailed Northwestern State by a point at halftime Friday night, but the Tigers did not wait for coach Matt McMahon to tell them what to do.
“Honestly, before coach even came in, we challenged ourselves. We knew what we needed to do,” senior transfer guard Jordan Sears said on the postgame show after LSU came back for 77-53 win in front of 8,042 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
“We are really a connected team,” said Sears, who led all scorers with 18 points, including 6-of-14 shooting from 3-point range. “I would like to really highly believe in that. We talked to each other before coach even came in. He came in and reiterated everything we said, and we knew exactly what we needed to do when we came back out.”
LSU (6-1) had to pick up the pace on offense and defense. The Demons’ zone defense stymied the Tigers in the first half in taking a 26-25 lead at the break after leading by as many as six at 19-13 at the 7:29 mark.
“They mixed the zone defenses. They even changed coverages,” McMahon said. “Switched to man-to-man in the middle of possessions. It really had us back on our heels, and we did not attack it with pace.”
That changed quickly in the second half as the Tigers outscored Northwestern State 5-0 in the first 53 seconds and played more intense defense. Senior transfer guard Cam Carter hit a 3-pointer at 19:28 to put LSU ahead to stay at 28-26. Then Carter fed redshirt freshman forward Corey Chest for a fast break bucket for a 30-26 lead. The Tigers quickly completed an 18-3 run over the next five minutes to open the second half by taking a 43-29 lead with 14:29 to go. And it was over.
Carter scored all 15 of his points in the second half, including 3-of-8 shooting from 3-point range while adding three assists and two steals. Junior forward Jalen Reed scored 11 points with five rebounds, and freshman guard Vyctorius Miller also scored 11 with five rebounds and two assists.
“Was really pleased with our guys response coming out of the break,” McMahon said. “We were able to step up the defensive intensity, force some turnovers and get out in the break and convert.”
LASTING IMPACT OF LSU’S TRIPLE-OT WIN OVER CENTRAL FLORIDA
LSU forced 19 turnovers for the game. Twelve of those came in the first half, but LSU had no fast break points out of them.
“That’s hard to do,” McMahon said. “We weren’t converting to offense fast enough. That got corrected.”
Chest led LSU with 10 rebounds and scored nine points. Guard Jon Sanders led the Demons (2-5) with 14 points, including 4-of-8 shooting from 3-point range.
LSU next plays Florida State (7-1) on Tuesday night (8 p.m., SEC Network) in the SEC-ACC Challenge. The Tigers.
DAIMION COLLINS WILL NOT HAVE SHOULDER SURGERY
LSU received a great medical report Friday concerning the dislocated right shoulder suffered by junior forward Daimion Collins against Pittsburgh on Nov. 22.
“Very encouraging news out of his testing this week,” McMahon said. “No surgery required at this time.”
Collins, a transfer to LSU from Kentucky after the 2022-23 season, missed virtually all of last season with a dislocation of the same shoulder that required surgery.
“He’s already full go in his rehab program and strengthening,” McMahon said. “Hope to get him back. No time table on it, but he’s already participating in practice in some of the non-contact stuff, and hope to get him back sooner than later.”
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