ATLANTA ? LSU settled any doubt of being able to last to a third or fourth day in the Southeastern Conference Tournament by wilting miserably on the second day. From the early moments Friday night, the Tigers looked like they had been out late Thursday night ? which they had ? and lost 80-60 to Ole Miss like a dead team walking. LSU apparently left it all on the court after 11 p.m. Thursday in a thrilling but exhaustive 76-67 victory over Tennessee in overtime. The rested Rebels, who received a bye on Thursday as the SEC West's second seed, immediately slapped LSU in the face by taking a 12-5 lead six minutes into the game on a lay-up, fittingly, by Bam Doyne. Clarence Sanders hit two free throws for a 14-6 lead two minutes later, and bam, LSU was never closer than that eight spot the rest of the way. It was over already in front of a session crowd of 16,203 at the Georgia Dome, site of LSU's NCAA Regional wins over No. 1 Duke and No. 9 Texas last year that put it in the Final Four. "I think our minds were more tired than our bodies," said LSU forward Tasmin Mitchell, who led a sickly offense with 17 points. "I know we played very hard last night. We probably didn't come out with as much intensity as we would have liked." The Rebels (20-11) did and advanced to meet SEC East and regular season champion and No. 6 Florida (27-5) at 2:15 today in a semifinal. "I felt like we were really aggressive from the jump," Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said. West top seed Mississippi State (18-12) meets West third seed Arkansas (20-12) at noon today in the first semifinal. State beat Kentucky 84-82 in overtime Saturday, and Arkansas beat Vanderbilt 72-71 for its second win of the tourney. Florida breezed by Georgia 74-57. Ole Miss and State have never reached the semifinals of the same SEC Tournament until now, and the disrespected West division has three teams in the final four. LSU (17-15) is done for the season unless it receives a bid to the revamped National Invitation Tournament on Sunday night. The Tigers were virtually dead on arrival Friday in a game that started after 9 p.m. CST. After a jumper by Darnell Lazare tied the game 2-2 with 18:56 to play, the Tigers missed an uncanny 17 consecutive shots in falling behind 20-7 with 6:02 to play in the half. Finally, Lazare made the next field goal to get the Tigers within 20-9 at the 5:44 mark. Ole Miss shot 50 percent from the field and out-rebounded the Tigers for a 37-17 lead at the break. LSU finished a miserable 4-for-29 in the first half for a season-low 13.8 percent, which was likely one of the lowest shooting percentages by an LSU team in decades. "I don't know if I've ever experienced 20 minutes of basketball from an offensive standpoint like that," LSU coach John Brady said. "I mean we missed every shot imaginable ? lay-ups, open 3-pointers, good shots." The Tigers finished 20-of-61 for the game for 33 percent after shooting 53 percent Thursday night. "You can't play as well as our team did 24 hours ago and come out tonight and offensively be almost anemic," Brady said. LSU shooting guard Terry Martin was 0-for-6 from 3-point range in the first half and ended up 0-for-8 from beyond the arc and 2-of-12 overall for five points. Glen Davis, who made an early bid for tournament MVP honors on Thursday night with a powerful 25 points and 15 rebounds, scored three points in the first half on 0-for-3 shooting and finished with six points on 1-of-8 shooting along with seven rebounds. Lazare scored 13 points. Doyne led Ole Miss with 26 points. Ole Miss' lead grew to as many as 25 in the second half at 78-53 on a 3-pointer by Brian Smith with 2:13 to play. "I didn't think they were tired," Doyne said. "I don't know what they were." Link To Original Article
