No. 18 LSU Upset by Vanderbilt 99-90, Ending Commodore Historic Losing Streak

It's that age old saying of records are made to be broken, only LSU basketball found itself on the wrong side of the saying on Wednesday night.

After Vanderbilt lost an SEC record 26 straight games, the Commodores came out and saw Saben Lee and Maxwell Evans combine for 64 points en route to a 99-90 upset win over No. 18 LSU. The Tigers (17-5, 8-1) loss ends a 13-game road SEC win streak and 10-game win streak overall.

The Commodores shot lights out from start to finish scoring a season-high 99 points and 57% from the field, the most points the team had scored during its 26-game losing streak.

The Tigers trailed most of the game because of the phenomenal Vanderbilt shooting but still found itself within striking distance as the final five minutes approached. LSU, a team that had been dominant during its win streak in the last 10 games, was outscored 15-7 over the final 4:53 after actually taking a 83-82 lead.

Coming into the game, the one thing that stood out to coach Will Wade when watching film was the amount of threes Vanderbilt took in SEC play. Nearly 46% of the Commodore shot attempts in conference play came from beyond-the-arc. On Wednesday night Vanderbilt followed that gameplan to the letter with 30 of its 61 shot attempts coming from from three point range.

"They've got some good qualities, you have to be able to win the free throw line against them, have to contest their threes while also guarding them without fouling," Wade said Monday.

Well LSU won the free throw battle, draining 28-of-36 attempts at the charity stripe. Defending the three-point line on the other hand was an utter disaster. In fact the LSU defense as a whole was a complete mess as Vanderbilt knocked down 12-of-30 three-pointers while also going 17-of-23 at the foul line.

It was simply just undisciplined basketball that Wade called "humbling" after the loss, saying the team can learn a lot from a loss like this.

Freshman Trendon Watford and sophomore Emmitt Williams led the way for LSU with Watford dropping a career-high 26 points while Williams added 24 more with 11 rebounds. But their efforts were no match for the duo of Evans and Lee, who dropped 28 of their 64 total points in the second half.

Lee and Evans both scored career highs of 33 and 31 points respectively.

Both Vanderbilt and LSU played to each other’s strengths in the first half as the Tigers pounded the paint and free throw line while the Commodores got red hot from beyond-the-arc.

The show of the first half was Evans, who dropped a career-high 25 points in the first half alone and Lee who added 16 more. Vanderbilt shot 55% from the field and at one point went on a 19-7 run in the first half to lead by as many as 13 points.

Every single point for the Tigers in the first 16 minutes of the game came in either the paint or at the free throw line as LSU combated the onslaught of Vanderbilt threes by continuing to trust its style of play.

LSU went 18-for-21 at the free throw line, extending a three game first half trend that's seen the Tigers go 50-for-60 and helped LSU get off to fast starts in its previous two outings. In the Vanderbilt game, it kept LSU from a disaster start.

While Evans was killing it from the outside for the Commodores, Williams and Watford kept LSU afloat by combining for 29 of LSU's 47 first half points. The Tigers closed the half on a 9-2 run fueled by five straight points from Skylar Mays to make it just a 52-47 deficit heading into the break.

Lee and Maxwell continued to cook LSU in the second half, scoring 14 of Vandy's 17 points to start the half. Both teams traded buckets the first 10 minutes of the second, starting a combined 16-of-22 from the field.

The Tigers will need to put this devastating loss in the back of their minds with an away outing with No. 11 Auburn on Saturday at 11 a.m.