LSU Basketball came up short against Saint Louis on Saturday afternoon, falling to the Billikens 85-81.
Saturday afternoon’s matchup between LSU and Saint Louis went down to the wire, but the Billikens made just enough plays in the end, to secure an 85-81 victory over a quality SEC opponent. LSU Basketball started fast right out of the gate, gaining an early 6-0 lead, before Saint Louis finally settled in, and took a 14-11 lead with 10:46 remaining in the first half.
As the first half went on, Saint Louis began to find their groove offensively, as they managed to go on an impressive 7-0 run, and obtain a 32-23 lead with 5:55 to go. LSU struggled offensively for most of the half, and went over three minutes without a bucket toward the end of the half. After surrendering a two-point basket to Terrence Hargrove Jr. to end the first 20 minutes of action, the Tigers went into halftime trailing the Billikens 38-28.
Offensively, the Tigers started to pick things up early in the second half, but their defensive woes from the first half, carried over into the second, as they scored 10 quick points, but also gave up 11 points to the Billikens right off the bat. The Billikens led by as many as 12 points in the second half, but the Tigers crept back into the ball game, and found themselves down by just a single point with 47 seconds to go (after a Cameron Thomas layup).
Unfortunately for the Tigers, they couldn’t manage to come down with a defensive rebound, after Gibson Jimerson missed a three-point jump shot on the very next possession. The Tigers made things even worse, by fouling Javonte Perkins (who had a monster game) while he was attempting a corner three-point jump shot.
Perkins drilled all three free throws, and essentially iced the game, as the Tigers weren’t able to get the game-changing turnover that they needed, and eventually fell to the Billikens 85-81.
LSU really didn’t deserve to win this game in my opinion, which is why their loss didn’t shock me all. After observing the game, it is clear that the Tigers have some issues that they need to clean up moving forward, but in this article, I want to focus on three main reasons, why the Tigers didn’t come out victorious on Saturday afternoon.