LSU Ends Regular Season on Dramatic Note with 80-77 Win Over Alabama

Days, Murray and Eason all show up in pivotal moments to build momentum heading into postseason

The energy in the PMAC was electric down the stretch as the LSU regular season came to an end in dramatic fashion, with the Tigers getting the momentum building 80-77 win over Alabama. 

The Tigers (21-10, 9-9) snapped a five game losing streak to the Crimson Tide and is the kind of win that can carry over into postseason play.

LSU certainly didn't make it easy on itself, committing another mind boggling foul at half court in the closing seconds of regulation that helped Alabama force overtime. In the overtime period the two went back and forth, a precursor the entire game, with forward Tari Eason making a game changing block and coast to coast layup that put the Tigers up one point with 38 seconds to go. 

UNBELIEVABLE pic.twitter.com/OE5LhHEPMI

— LSU Basketball (@LSUBasketball) March 5, 2022

All season it's been defense that's LSU's calling card and the Tigers closed out the game forcing a shot clock violation. 

It was only appropriate that on senior night Darius Days was the one to put the team on his back with a game leading 24 points, 13 of which came in the second half and overtime. 

"It was a great way for me to go out," Days said. "It's been a fun four years. Coming in here as a 18 year-old, I really grew up here, became a man here. It's very emotional.

"I thought this was one of his best games by far here, inside and out," Will Wade said. "He's the best. He's been an ambassador for the program on and off the floor. We haven't had one issue with him in four years and that's one of the highest compliments you can give."

For LSU the offense was unpredictable and chaotic during a number of stretches throughout the contest. The ball movement, shot selection and execution was all really good early in the game but the team fell into too many lulls that kept the Crimson Tide hanging around. 

That was certainly the nature of the first half for both teams as it was a game of runs, mainly the Tigers creating a little bit of distance only to be matched by a big run from Alabama. The Crimson Tide are a team who certainly live and die by the three but the LSU defense kept up the pressure throughout the majority of the first 20 minutes.

Where LSU ran into issues were on the glass and paying a costly price with its turnovers, both areas the team had been much better in the last handful of games.  Alabama would grab nine offensive boards in the first half and 17 for the game that it turned into 19 second chance points.

As for the turnovers, LSU kept those to a minimum but the 13 times they did turn the ball over were costly, leading to 16 points off turnovers. Both were issues that needed to be cleaned up in the second half for the Tigers to have a chance at pulling off a much needed final win to the regular season.

Starting halves the right way has at times been this team's downfall but the Tigers came out with the necessary energy offensively to stay in this game. LSU moved the ball well and more importantly converted on open shots. 

LSU shot the ball efficiently from inside and outside of the arc, making 46% of its shots and 35% from three. The Tigers picked up phenomenal offensive play from freshman guard Brandon Murray, who'd finish with 17 points on the afternoon, as well as Days who added 24 more and Tari Eason who scored 20 more.

It was on the defensive end where the Tigers ran into trouble as the Crimson Tide found ways throughout the entire game to get way too many clean looks from long distance. Alabama is a team that lives and dies by the three and was getting LSU into rotation and leading to wide open looks, shooting 40 on the night but only knocking down 11. 

What that also did is cause long rebounds on misses which helped the Crimson Tide be so successful at grabbing the offensive rebounds throughout the game.

"They're hard to guard in the half court. They can just whip you off the bounce and then you're just spinning like a top until they decide who they want to shoot the open three," Wade said. "It didn't happen as frequently as it typically does so give credit to our guys."

The two teams continued to claw and go back and forth for most of the second half, with the key stretch coming in the final four minutes of a 64-64 contest. Coming out of a timeout an aggressive catch and finish from Days was followed by a steal and coast to coast dunk by Murray that blew the roof off the PMAC.

THIS IS THE DEAF DOME. pic.twitter.com/x4yNfcaxLT

— LSU Basketball (@LSUBasketball) March 5, 2022

The energy in the building was palpable and ignited a surge of urgency the rest of the way in the team.

"We still made quite a few mistakes but that's who we are. We're an aggressive team so it's hard to kind of dial it back," Wade said. "We still turned them over 21 times, still got to it with our pressure. There's some things we can do to get better and we're gonna keep working at it."

Up next for LSU is the SEC tournament with the Tigers pretty much locking up a play date on Thursday.