LSU Basketball: Tigers fall to Texas A&M on the road, 68-62

The LSU basketball team came into Tuesday night’s match-up against Texas A&M with a 4-2 road record in the Southeastern Conference. The Tigers, behind Jordan Mickey’s 20-point, 11-rebound performance, got their fourth road win in conference play on Saturday against Tennessee, 73-55.

Tonight it was a different story for the Tigers in College Station.

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LSU shot 64 percent (16-of-25) in the first half against the Vols and 53 percent overall against Tennessee’s zone defense, but the Tigers ran into a roadblock in College Station, TX.

Danuel House scored a game-high 20 points, Kourtney Roberson had 16 points and 11 rebounds, and Jalen Jones added 10 to lead the Aggies (18-7, 9-4 SEC) past LSU 68-62.

With this win, Texas A&M sweeps the Tigers in conference play and improves to 2-5 against teams in the top 50 RPI. This win also improves the Aggies’ chances of a possible at-large bid in the NCAA tournament. LSU’s hopes for an NCAA bid took a hit with the loss.

The Tigers (18-8, 7-6) led 50-42 after Brian Bridgewater went 1-for-2 from the foul line. Bridgewater played 16 minutes and finished the game with nine points and six rebounds. Bridgewater was a big boost off the bench for his team, who was without starting center Jarell Martin, who picked up his fourth foul with 14:38 left in the game. Martin fouled out with 13 points and six rebounds after fouling Jones with 11 seconds left.

Jones’ two late free throws sealed the win for Texas A&M, which went 14-for-26 from the charity stripe.

When it seemed like LSU was in full control, House rose to the occasion and knocked down big shots for the Aggies, who shot 45 percent from the field. House connected on back-to-back jumpers with one of them going in off an off-balanced attempt from the baseline. House followed with a layup then Alex Caruso’s driving layup tied the game at 50-all.

Both teams kept trading scores for the next three minutes and the game was tied once again at 59 with 5:20 to go. Roberson’s layup gave Texas A&M the lead for a short stint. Martin’s two free throws tied the game at 61 then Roberson scored four straight points to put the Aggies up for good.

The Tigers had multiple opportunities to close the gap but failed to knock down shots. Mickey had a costly turnover during Texas A&M’s 10-0 run where he quickly turned around and threw the basketball towards the sideline, in the direction of Tim Quarterman, who finished with nine points and missed a runner towards the end of the game that could have closed his team’s gap to four.

House started red hot for the Aggies, scoring nine points to help his team build a 21-10 lead at the 11:30 mark. House knocked down long three from the left wing over Keith Hornsby and that forced coach Johnny Jones to call timeout. After the timeout, Hornsby was left all alone at the top of the key for his third 3-pointer of the game. Hornsby drained his next shot from inside the 3-point line.

Hornsby was the reason for LSU’s early scoring since the Tigers’ monster tandem of Martin and Mickey struggled to find any rhythm in the paint.

Hornsby had 11 points on 4-for-11 shooting.

LSU was able to get its deficit down to 23-20 after freshman Jalyn Patterson drained the free throw jumper in transition. Bridgewater scored the Tigers’ next four points, then Quarterman drained his first three from the right wing to give LSU a 27-26 lead.

The Tigers would build from there.

On Texas A&M’s inbound pass, Quarterman slipped in for the swift steal and found Mickey open under the rim for his only two points of the half. Mickey finished with six points on a 2-for-9 night.

The Aggies committed another costly turnover on their next possession that led to another thunderous 3-pointer from Quarterman. Josh Gray got in on his team’s 19-5 scoring spurt, connecting on a layup with the assist from Martin.

Texas A&M started the game 7-for-10 from the field then went ice cold, going 3-for-10 in the last five minutes. During their scoring drought, the Aggies committed four turnovers. LSU ended the first half shooting 6-of-10 from the field after starting 3-for-10.

House’s last three attempt before halftime landed in Roberson’s hands for the easy stick-back. Texas A&M went into its locker room down 36-31.

LSU returns home this Saturday to face Florida at 12:00 pm CT.