Vols fall flat vs. Tigers
BATON ROUGE, La. — Tennessee found its offense, at least for one half, Wednesday night against LSU. The Vols' defense didn't make the trip.
Tennessee scored 46 points in the first half and shot 57 percent from the field, but managed to shoot just 27 percent in the second half, making 9 of 33 shots from the floor while LSU ran away with a 92-82 win.
Grant Williams had 16 points and 14 rebounds for Tennessee (15-15, 7-10 SEC) and Shembari Phillips scored 16 and Lamonte Turner added 14. Robert Hubbs, Jordan Bone and Jordan Bowden combined for 25 points in the first half, but all three players were shutout after halftime.
Brandon Sampson scored a gamehigh 24 to lead LSU (10-19, 2-15). Jalyn Patterson added another 22.
LSU used an 11-0 run as Tennessee went scoreless for 4:03 early in the second half, with the home team taking control of the game while turning a 5149 deficit into a 60-51 lead.
Phillips hit a 3-pointer at the 18:20 mark of the second half and the Vols didn't score again until Williams hit two free throws with 14:07 to play. Williams added two more free throw 65 seconds later to cut the lead down to five, but LSU answered with a 5-0 run to get the lead back to 10 with 11:29 left.
The Tigers led by 14 at the midway point of the second half. An Admiral Schofield 3-pointer with 3:01 left got the Vols within eight, at 80-72.
Tennessee managed to get a stop on the other end after LSU ran the shot clock down, but Schofield immediately turned the ball over on an errant pass down the floor. LSU answered with a corner 3-pointer after the turnover, building the lead back to 11 with 2:06 left.
After averaging 56.3 points per game over their last three losses, the Vols had 46 by halftime against LSU, but had just a four-point lead to show for it.
Tennessee shot 57.1 percent (16-28) from the field in the first half, made 60 percent (6-10) from the 3-point line and 72.7 percent (8-11) from the free-throw line. The Vols had 10 assists at the half, to just six field goals.
Over the last two games — a 67-56 loss against Vanderbilt and a 82-55 loss at South Carolina — Tennessee totaled just 15 assists and went 4-for-30 from the 3-point line.
LSU made shots too, though. The Tigers hit 50 percent (15-30) from the field, 57.1 percent (4-7) from three and had a matching 72.7 percent (8-11) at the free-throw line.
Bone led Tennessee with nine points at the break. Hubbs and Bowden added eight each and Grant Williams grabbed eight rebounds. Patterson had 10 firsthalf points to lead LSU.
The Vols are home against Alabama (16-12, 9-7) for Senior Day on Saturday (TV: SEC Network, 1 p.m.) at Thompson-Boling Arena to close the regularseason schedule.