Tigers shoot for road win
Moments after Anthony Hickey beat Mississippi State with a last-second floater Tuesday night, the LSU men’s basketball team painted a gold-clad scene rife with smiling faces, chest-bumping teammates and hugs all around.
The Tigers had completed a comeback from 17 down late in the first half to secure their first winning streak of the Southeastern Conference season.
Will the celebration from Tuesday’s postgame become the image associated with a late-season charge?
LSU (15-10, 5-6) heads to South Carolina (10-15, 2-9) on Saturday looking to score its first SEC road win after building some momentum with a pair of home wins. Tip-off at Colonial Life Arena is set for 12:47 p.m.
“We’ve got to go in there with the same confidence we’ve been playing with at home,” Hickey said. “I’m ready to move on to South Carolina and hopefully get another win.”
The Tigers lost five of their seven league games in January, capped by a lopsided loss to Kentucky at home, but have won three of four since then. They can keep on the right track by putting behind an 0-5 mark in SEC road games.
LSU coach Trent Johnson said the key is for the players not to stay giddy about Tuesday’s victory and realize they still have plenty of room for improvement.
“If you start relying on confidence and momentum and get smacked in the face again, that’s a long drop,” Johnson said.
South Carolina enters with a little momentum of its own after scoring a 57-56 win against Georgia on Wednesday. But the Gamecocks, with a roster that includes six sophomores and three freshmen, remain last in the SEC standings.
Asked about the record of Saturday’s opponent, LSU center Justin Hamilton gave a response his coach would love.
“I know they won their last game,” he said. “I guess that makes them 1-0 coming into our game.”
South Carolina has lost seven of its conference games by double figures, but five of those losses came against first-place Kentucky, second-place Florida and third-place Vanderbilt.
The Gamecocks boast one of the SEC’s top all-around athletes in sophomore point guard Bruce Ellington.
After earning SEC All-Freshman honors in basketball, Ellington spent the fall playing wide receiver for Steve Spurrier’s football team.
His time on the football field has limited him to 18 games — and nine starts — as a sophomore, but the 5-foot-9, 197-pounder enters Saturday averaging 10.2 points and leads South Carolina with 50 assists.
He scored a game-high 20 points in a 64-56 win at LSU last year.
“I just wish he would concentrate on football full-time,” Johnson quipped. “That’s what I wish.”
Senior forward Malik Cooke, whose layup with 20 seconds left won the Georgia game, leads South Carolina in scoring at 12.2 points per game.
“South Carolina is playing with as much purpose as anybody in the league right now,” Johnson said. “They’ve got a really nice, talented young team.”
The return to form of Ralston Turner, who went for 17 points in Tuesday’s win, has helped LSU achieve better balance on the offensive end. The Tigers have had four players reach double figures in three of the last four games.
On the inside, Hamilton continues to lead the Tigers, averaging 13.7 points and 7.3 rebounds.
The transfer from Iowa State has scored 20 or more points in five of 11 league games. He has reached double figures in all but one.
“He’s like the old reliable,” Johnson said. “Just methodically gets things done.”
Hickey scored only four points Tuesday in regulation, but had four points in the final 22 seconds of overtime. His floater with 1.4 seconds left was the latest example of his penchant for making plays in the clutch.
Now the Tigers, who won only three league games last year, are tied for sixth place in the jumbled SEC standings and find themselves just one game out of fourth.
“We have an opportunity here in front of us,” Turner said. “It’s up to us what we do with it.”