LSU survives against Savannah State

LSU Basketball harnessed the power of the eye of the tiger and survived against the Savannah State Tigers in the last game before conference play starts. The crowd was light on a rainy night, but the fans who showed up were treated to free tacos as LSU won 75-59. The fans also saw Johnny Jones add a wrinkle to his starting lineup in a continuing effort to find ways to improve the team moving forward. He gave the starting nod to Aaron Epps who is from just across the creek in Ball.

Epps and the rest of the starting five got down early as LSU shot at a 3-for-15 clip to begin the game.  The official timeout at the 15:50 mark saw LSU down 11-2 in a game that was eerily similar to Monday night. That is when Jordan Mickey started to take care of business scoring the next 8-points and putting LSU within 8.

Following a Tim Quarterman bucket, Brian Bridgewater stole on one end, and Mickey scored at the other. The official timeout at the 6:54 mark saw LSU down 16-12. Epps put LSU within 2 points, then Jarell Martin tied it up as a timeout was called on the court at the 5:51 mark.

Martin himself and SSU traded buckets as the clock wound down on the first half.  Mickey contributed to the cause with a layup of his own. Then Martin put up a wind mill dunk. LSU was rolling before the half up 27-20. At the half the hosting Tigers lead 31-25 and never looked back.

Martin shot at a 10-for-15 clip and tying his career high in points with 26. Other scoring leaders for LSU were Mickey with 24 and Quaterman with 13. LSU posted 25 assists. The previous occasion of this feat was November 30, 2008, against Troy.

The Tigers improved to an 11-2 record and extended its winning streak to six games. It begins conference play Thursday night at Missouri. Tipoff is at 6:00 PM, and the game will be seen nationally on ESPN/2.