Tennessee Fights Off Upset-Minded LSU

It wasn’t pretty, but it got the job done. Tennessee rallied after putting up a terrible first half to put away a fiesty LSU team 59-49.

The Tigers owned much of the first half, but it largely was a factor of being less inept than Tennessee was at the time. Ten minutes into the game it was just 10-7 with LSU leading, and the underdogs were able to pull out in front as far as 17-10. Wayne Chism was seemingly the only Volunteer awake for much of that span, as he either scored or assisted 11 of UT’s first 12 points. Eventually the guys from Knoxville pulled even at 21 at the half despite going 25.4 percent from the floor, their worst shooting half of the season.

The Vols would end up leading the entire second half, though the margin was never more than nine until Bobby Maze’s free throws with 13 seconds left gave the game its final score. LSU cut the lead to five with just over a minute to play, but the Tigers wouldn’t score again as Maze iced the game at the charity stripe.

This was not a game for the ages as the two squads combined to shoot 39-107 (36.4 percent) from the field, including a ghastly 7-39 (17.9 percent) from downtown. They even managed to brick it up from the line to the tune of 23-36 (63.8 percent), and that percentage gets worse if you factor out Maze’s 9-10 performance there. Chism was the star of the day with 17 points and 10 rebounds, while Storm Warren was the best Tiger with 18 points. Maze chipped in 14 for Big Orange, while LSU’s Tasmin Mitchell finished his career with 10 points and eight rebounds.

After a couple of low scoring games to kick this thing off, it’d be nice to see some points this evening.