POSTGAME: Georgia 61, LSU 60

After a fun first half leaving the Tigers with a 34-24 lead going into the locker room, LSU lost to Georgia (12-5, 3-3) in their third straight loss in the PMAC. The Tigers (11-6, 2-3) allowed the Bulldogs’ strongest player in Yante Maten to score 17 points in the second half alone, still failing to grab a conference win at home.

“It’s just a tale of two halves,” said Coach Wade after the game. “We controlled the pace in the first half. The second half, they controlled things. They got the ball to Maten, their best player. They just physically beat us up in the paint, beat us up on the glasses. I think we were down one on the boards at halftime. We lost it by 11.”

Georgia won the rebounding battle 38-27. The Bulldogs would finish with 17 second chance points.

“They rebounded 13 of their 31 misses,” added Wade. “That’s in the high 40s. That’s got to be. That’s almost 50 percent. They just physically beat us up. That’s pretty much all there is to it.”

Yante Maten finished the game with 21 points and 12 rebounds, his eighth double-double of the season.

Brandon Sampson led the Tigers on offense tonight, hitting three timely shots from beyond the arc, finishing with 17 points. Reath and Mays finished with 12 and 11 points respectively, the latter also snagging 7 rebounds. While Tremont Waters led the team with 5 assists, he could never really quite get his own shot together, including the last attempt to win the game.

“I think he felt when he split the double-team that there was less time than there was,” said Wade. “He thought it took a little longer. I thought he probably could have gotten another couple of dribbles and probably could have gotten to the elbow. That’s the way it goes late in the game.”

LSU looks to extend their road game record to 4-0 in Nashville when they take on the Vanderbilt Commodores (6-12, 1-5) this Saturday at noon. The ‘Dores lone SEC win was a one point victory over Alabama in Memorial Gym.