LSU hangs on to win on Super Tuesday

As voters in eleven states headed to the polls in primaries and caucuses on Super Tuesday, there was a heated contest in Baton Rouge on the basketball court. The Missouri Tigers were down in the polls hanging on trying to stay in the race whereas the LSU Tigers were 4 places from the top with one contest remaining before the convention that is the SEC Tournament. It was the home Tigers winning the delegates. LSU picked up the win 80-71 in a game that should not have been as close.

LSU came out leading 10-6 over Mizzou with under 15 minutes remaining in the 1st half. Antonio Blakeney scored and was fouled. LSU led 14-6 with Blakeney at the line. The three point play was good the old fashioned way. Mizzou scored on back-to-back baskets and trailed 15-10. A three pointer was then good for Blakeney as LSU led 18-10 with 11:29 in the first half.

Ben Simmons would then feed Brandon Sampson for a bucket. LSU then led 21-10. Sampson later muscled a three pointer to go down capping off a 12-2 for the home Tigers. Mizzou scored a trey to make it 27-15, but LSU answered on the other side of the court. Sampson received the lob pass from Tim Quaterman and dunked it down for a basket to go up 31-15. Quarterman then got the offenive rebound and the bucket for two points to go up 33-19.

A timeout was called on the court at the 3:19 mark of the first half with LSU leading 35-19 and with Blakeney at the line for three shots. He knocked down the trifecta coming out of the timeout. Simmons and Craig Victor each added scores, and at the half LSU was up 46-24 over Mizzou. The Reveille Sports tweeted at that point, "HALF | #LSU leads Mizzou, 46-24. Blakeney leads all scorers with 11 points. Three other LSU players have 8 pts. LSU shooting 58% from field."

But during the halftime break, Mizzou rallied its base. This caused a flux in intensity on the part of the challengers from Columbia in the second half as the home Tigers appeared unmotivated. Mizzou scored the first three baskets of the second half. A timeout was called on the court with Mizzou down by 16 with 17:35 remaining in the game.

Mizzou extended its scoring run on a trey and now trailed 54-39 and then scored a basket cutting into the LSU lead. It would not go into the night quietly as it again scored. The visiting Tigers trailed 56-43. The scoring continued as Mizzou made the deficit in thensingle digits as LSU led 63-54. Then Mizzou scored a three ball as the proverbial mic dropped.

Blakeney and Quartman each scored a trey pumping life into LSU's campaign, and Simmons sealed the win at the free throw line going 10 for 11.