LSU downs No. 11 South Carolina in SEC thriller

COLUMBIA, South Carolina – Coach Matt McMahon has been saying that the LSU Tigers needed to learn to win the 50-50 games down the stretch.

Just three days after a heart-breaking loss by two points at Florida, graduate student Jordan Wright scored LSU’s final seven points, including two free throws with 5.0 seconds remaining to give LSU an upset, 64-63, win over No. 11 South Carolina Saturday afternoon at Colonial Life Arena.

For LSU it was its first true road victory over an AP Top 25 team since Feb. 12, 2019 at No. 5 Kentucky. It snapped a 10-game losing streak in true road games versus AP Top 25-teams.

LSU trailed by as many as 16 points Saturday and it was the first time LSU had a 15+ point comeback and won on the road since March 6, 2014 at Vanderbilt.

It was the eighth true road win for the Tigers over a team ranked in the AP top 11 all-time.

LSU trailed Carolina by 16 points with 16:58 to go in the game but had cut the lead to six at the 4:08 mark. Tyrell Ward posted a dunk and after a Gamecock miss, Ward hit a three to cut the margin to 55-54 with 3:16 to play.

After the final media timeout and a Carolina bucket, Ward on a third chance offensive possession, would hit a step-back three-pointer to tie the game at 57-57 with 1:24 to play.

But that lead was short-lived as B. J. Mack hit a three-pointer of his own to give Carolina a 60-57 lead with 55 seconds to play.

On the LSU possession, Wright scored on a driving layup to make it 60-59 with 46 seconds to play. He was fouled and made the free throw to tie the game at 60-60.

Again, South Carolina got another three-pointer wide-open at the top of the key from Ta’lon Cooper to make it 63-60 with 29 seconds to play.

But teams played the final minute with multiple fouls to give and the South Carolina bench was asking their players to foul but Wright was about to get a driving layup to make it 63-62 with 17 seconds left.

On the inbounds, Hunter Dean and Jalen Reed forced a jump ball and the possession belonged to LSU. As the clock ran down, Wright drove again to the lane and was fouled with five seconds to play. He calmly over the deafening roar of the crowd of over 16,000 made both free throws to get the lead for LSU, 64-63.

LSU used one of their fouls to give on Carolina’s last possession and a three-pointer by Jacobi Wright did not go sending the LSU crowd into a frenzy as the buzzer sounded.

Tyrell Ward led LSU with 16 points, including three treys while Jordan Wright had 14 and Jalen Reed 13. Trae Hannibal, who played 32 minutes with Jalen Cook out again with a minor injury, had six points and 12 rebounds.

B. J. Mack led Carolina with 18 points and nine boards while Collin Murray-Boyles added 13 points.

LSU, which trailed by seven at the half (32-25), is now 13-12 on the season and 5-7 in the league. Carolina loses for the second time this week and is 21-5 and 9-4.

The Tigers shot 25-of-58 for the game (43.1%), making 5-of-13 three-pointers and 9-of-14 at the line. Carolina finished 26-of-62 (41.9%) with six treys and 5-of-6 at the line. LSU outrebounded the Gamecocks, 38-33, with both teams having 38 points in the paint.

LSU now hosts Kentucky in the Maravich Center on Wednesday at 8 p.m. (ESPN, LSU Sports Radio Network). Tickets are available at LSUTix.net.

LSU Postgame Quotes

LSU Head Coach Matt McMahon Postgame Quotes

Opening Statement…

“Yeah, just so proud of our players. Down 16 there in the second half, we really displayed the toughness and the grit and the togetherness we’ve been looking for as a team. To just keep playing one possession at a time and find a way to get the job done there at the end. I thought our guys really fought. And the offensive execution was a lot better in the second half and we got stops, some timely stops when we needed them there to find a way to win at the final buzzer. But all that said, so much respect for the job coach (Lamont) Paris has done. They’ve got a terrific team and what he’s been able to do here, so we’re really proud of the win. Losing sucks and we’ve been struggling to get over the hump and our guys, credit to them, just stay the course, keep coming to practice, keep working and earned themselves a hard-fought win today.”

On the comeback win…

“It was awesome. So proud of our guys. They just stayed the course. That was the toughness and the physicality, and the competitiveness combined with some togetherness that we’ve been trying to get. We’ve been right there on the verge, you know, as we all know, losing sucks man, you’re right there. We needed a break too. We needed to get over the hump and I thought our guys fought like crazy to make that happen today and just found a way to get it done.”

LSU Guard Jordan Wright

On his experience helping him stay poised…

“My experience has taught me how to stay poised. I think early in my career I struggled with just getting too involved in the crowd or the emotions of the game. But now I’ve played in a lot of big games and played against a lot of really good teams, so I can be a little more even-keeled. We just stayed poised, I think the team did a good job of that tonight. We’ve been in close games and have been on the other side in those games, so tonight we were able to capitalize. It was just about staying poised, being a leader and then it helps when you have a coaching staff who has been in and won big games, so they can bring that culture and that feel to us as well.”