Last year, College of Charleston surprised the world of college basketball with a win over an LSU team that headed into the season with tons of hype with their centerpiece Ben Simmons. In the final minutes of Monday night’s matchup, it seemed like that might happen again but the Tigers were able to overcome 16 turnovers to come away with a 75-65 win.
LSU started out strong jumping out to a 15-7 lead early on in the first half. The Tigers would hold onto that lead until the Cougars were able to take a small lead with 2:33 remaining in the first. The Tigers would then go on a 6-0 run in the final two minutes to head into the locker room with the lead, and more importantly the momentum.
That momentum LSU took into the half was extremely important as they would go on a 11-4 run in the opening five minutes of the opening frame and would hold their biggest lead of the game. LSU would hold onto the lead for most of the second half, but the Cougars were able to tie things up with 4:13 remaining thanks to the Tigers committing 8 turnovers. The game continued to go back and forth between these two until the last 89 seconds when the Tigers would score 10 straight points to walk away with a win.
The LSU Tigers (8-2) will leave the PMAC for the first time since November to take on Wake Forest (8-2) with tipoff set for 8 pm.
By the Numbers:
37%: Field goal percentage for College of Charleston. The Cougars were awful from the field, but it was what they did from three-point range that cost them as they only made 2-of-18 on the night.
23: Number of points that Duop Reath had in the victory. The junior out of Perth, Australia led the team in points and had 8 boards and two assists.
17: Number of points off turnovers that College of Charleston had off of the 17 turnovers committed by LSU.
-Clint Domingue