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University of Houston
LSU
Houston Suffers Bitter Loss At LSU
12/20/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 20, 2001
Baton Rouge, La. - The LSU Tigers scored seven points in the final 1:57 of the game to score a 73-69 come-from-behind victory over the University of Houston at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Thursday night.
Houston led 69-66 after Patrick Okafor made a 15-foot jumper on the left baseline leading LSU head coach John Brady to call a time out.
But, Collis Temple, III hit a three-pointer from the left wing to tie the score,69-69, with 49 seconds remaining in the game.
On Houston's next possession, the Cougars were called for a shot clock violation when Dominic Smith's desperation three-point attempt didn't hit the rim.
After Brad Bridgewater scored on a slam dunk to give the Tigers a 71-69 lead, Kevin Gaines quickly brought the ball up court and drove into the middle of the lane. But, he lost control of his dribble and the ball went off his right leg out of bounds to give the Tigers possession once again. Houston quickly fouled LSU's Ronald Dupree, and Dupree missed the front end of a one-and-one, give Houston one more chance to tie the score.
Smith had the ball on the left wing and drove around Temple III into the left side of the lane. He spotted Gaines running down the left baseline toward the basket. But Gaines couldn't control the pass and Houston was forced to foul Torris Bright. Bright made both of his free throws giving LSU a 73-69 victory.
"This is a very difficult ball game to swallow," Houston head coach Ray McCallum said. "LSU got out to a quick start and I thought we regrouped to get back into the ball game."
The Tigers opened the game with a 6-0 lead and held a 55-44 lead with 15:22 left to play in the game.
But, Houston went to a 2-3 zone and that led to an 11-0 run over the next five minutes to tie the score, 55-55, on Louis Truscott's lay-up with 9:54 left to play. But, Patrick Okafor was called for a delay of game technical foul and Temple, III hit one of his two free throws to give LSU a 56-55 lead.
Following a 30-second time out, Temple hit a trey from the left baseline to put LSU up 59-55 with 9:04 remaining.
Houston refused to go away as Truscott scored back-to-back lay-ups to tie the score, 59-59, with 7:46 left.
Truscott made two free throws and hit a jumper inside the lane to give Houston a 63-61 lead and Williams added another jumper from the left wing as Houston went up 65-61 with 5:08 left to play.
Temple made another trey on LSU's next possession to pull the Tiger to within 65-64 with 4:34 remaining.
Bridgewater's lay-up with three minutes to play gave the Tigers a 66-65 lead, but Houston came right back with Williams hitting a lay-up off a missed free throw by Okafor. The Cougars went up 69-66 on Okafor's lay-up, but couldn't score on their next three possessions to set up the bitter ending.
The loss drops Houston's record to 5-4 on the season. The Cougars return home to play North Carolina State on Sunday, December 23, in Hofheinz Pavilion at 2:30 p.m.
