LSU was without Ben Simmons for most of the first half, and he was not his versatile self throughout the second half, but the Tigers won anyway.
Advertisement
The team’s 38 points was the lowest by any of the 351 Division I men’s teams in the 2015/16 season.
The No. 4 seeded Tigers (19-13) advance to play No. 1 seed and SEC regular season champion Texas A&M (25-7) at noon Saturday on ESPN.
The Tigers beat the Aggies 76-71 in Baton Rouge but looked nothing like that team in this game. LSU had not scored fewer in the SEC Tournament since a 59-36 loss to Kentucky in 1946.
It’s not yet official, but it might as well be: Ben Simmons will never participate in the NCAA Tournament as a college basketball player. The NCAA Tournament’s 68-team field will be announced Sunday night. “It’s going to be a hard game, but I know my guys are going to step up”. Antonio Blakeney and Tim Quarterman coming up big wouldn’t hurt the LSU cause either.
Three players tied for the team lead with seven rebounds, with two others adding six. Simmons had just one assist – four below his average.
Simmons actually had his 23 double-double, with 10 points and 12 rebounds.
Said Kennedy: “I am extremely appreciative of the support and confidence that Texas A&M has demonstrated to me and to our staff”.
Simmons finished with 10 points and 12 rebounds for fourth-seeded LSU (19-14). Mostella hit a jumper to give Tennessee a 33-32 lead into halftime. They combined to miss 24 shots in the quarterfinals, contributing to the Aggies’ woeful percentage of 39.4 overall.
Tennessee and LSU were neck and neck deep into the second half. Gilder punctuated the performance by beating the buzzer with a 3-pointer for a 35-13 lead at intermission.
They nearly certainly needed to win the SEC tournament to get into the NCAAs, and Texas A&M made that possibility seem laughable. We just couldn’t get it to go down. We shared the ball.
“To be totally honest, I wasn’t expecting us to lose”, Victor said. Blakeney had a game-high 22 points and was a flawless 9 for 9 from the free-throw line.
“They fought like they have all year”, Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said.
With LSU fighting foul trouble in the first half, Tennessee (15-19) hung tough but couldn’t pull off a third consecutive victory in the tournament.
“We turned it over a couple times at the end where we still had some chances, but we just were a little frazzled and trying to play really out of character a little bit”. “If we do that, we’ll be at 20 wins”.
Advertisement
“Going forward, there are some things we can build on, ” he said. “And everything else will take care of itself”.
