How It Happened: LSU Basketball Drops SEC Showdown 78-68 to South Carolina Gamecocks

BATON ROUGE – South Carolina blitzed LSU for 10 first-half three-pointers and then held off an LSU rally for a 78-68 victory for the Gamecocks over the Tigers Tuesday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

LSU drops its second straight conference game to fall to 12-3 (0-2), while South Carolina is now 10-5 and 1-1 in the league.

South Carolina made its first six three-point attempts and finished the first 20 minutes 10-of-13 from distance (76.9 percent). It was ironically, the same first half total from three-point range that Prairie View had against the Tigers on Dec. 22.

South Carolina scored the first 10 points of the game and the LSU offense at the same time was struggling to get on track, falling behind by as much as 28, 43-17, with 54 seconds to go in the first half. LSU trailed at the break, 50-25.

LSU began to whittle away on the lead in the second half, opening on 23-8 run to cut the margin to 10 on a Max Mackinnon three pointer that made the South Carolina lead, 58-48, with 12:05 to play. LSU got it to single digits for the first time at the 7:47 mark on another Mackinnon three-pointer, 64-55 and to just six at 66-60 with 6:22 to play.

But the Tigers never could get closer as South Carolina held the Tigers at bay to win by the final margin.

Mackinnon led LSU in scoring with 15 points, including three treys, while Pablo Tamba had 10 points and five rebounds. PJ Carter added 10 points. Robert Miller III had a good effort, scoring nine and Mike Nwoko, while struggling from the field, had a game high 13 rebounds.

LSU, after shooting 28.6 percent in the first half, shot just over 47 percent in the second to finish at 38.7 percent (24-of-62) with eight treys and 12-of-14 at the free throw line.

South Carolina finished the game shooting 47.2 percent (25-of-53) with 12 made three-pointers and 16-of-21 at the line.

LSU out rebounded South Carolina 42-30, but had its second straight game with double digit turnovers with 14.

South Carolina was led by Elijah Strong with 30 points. He hit 10-of-15 field goals, including 4-of-4 from three-point range. Meechie Johnson hit three treys in scoring 19 points and Eli Ellis had 10 points with two treys.

The Tigers are on the road on the weekend against Vanderbilt at Noon Saturday in Nashville at Memorial Gymnasium. The Tigers return to Baton Rouge for its next home game on Wednesday, Jan. 14, at 6 p.m. against Kentucky.

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