BATON ROUGE — With Saturday’s 76-68 loss to Texas Tech in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge, the LSU men’s basketball team dropped its eighth straight game.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
For the first five minutes, the two teams went back and forth trading buckets but LSU held a 10-8 lead after KJ Williams’ three-pointer. Texas Tech then responded with a 9-0 run to take control of the first half.
A layup by LSU’s Trae Hannibal cut the Red Raider lead down to five but Texas Tech answered with a layup by De’vion Harmon and then a three-pointer by Kevin Obanor pushed the lead back to double digits.
A few monents later, a three-pointer by Adam Miller cut the lead back down to single digits but Texas Tech answered. The Tigers then cut it down to five points as Miller drained another three-pointer and Cam Hayes had a fast break layup.
With 7:02 left in first, LSU trailed 28-23.
After a Williams went 1-for-2 at the free throw line, LSU made it a two-point game when Hannibal scored on layup off of a Texas Tech turnover.
Texas Tech’s Harmon would take back the momentum with a three-pointer and then Daniel Batcho hit a pair of free throws which pushed the Red Raider lead back to seven.
LSU trimmed the lead back to four but Texas Tech’s Kerwin Walton made back-to-back three pointers. At the break, the Red Raiders held a 41-33 lead.
LSU opened up the second half on a 7-1 run to trim the lead down to two points but Texas Tech’s Harmon hit a three-pointer.
The Tigers would answer and reclaim the lead for the first time since the 14:49 mark of the first half. Williams had an old-fashioned three-point play and then Miller hit a three.
LSU had a chance to add to the lead but back-to-back trips down the court came up empty. Texas Tech’s Walton then hit back-to-back threes to retake the lead.
LSU then retook the lead as Justice Hill hit a three, followed by layups by Derek Fountain and Hayes.
Texas Tech responded and with four minutes left in the game, the Red Raiders held a six-point lead and kept LSU at bay the rest of the way. The Tigers went without a field goal in more than eight minutes down the stretch of the game.
BIG NUMBER: 61
Texas Tech shot 61 percent from beyond the arc in the game as the Red Raiders made 11-of-18 on three-point attempts.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: ADAM MILLER
The LSU guard gave the Tigers an offensive spark as he scored 20 points, including going 5-of-10 from three-point range.
UP NEXT: LSU (12-9, 1-7 SEC) returns to conference action on Wednesday at Missouri. Tip is set for 8 p.m. and you can listen to the action live on THE GAME.