BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Jordan Wright scored a game-high 27 points leading LSU to an 89-80 victory over No. 22 Mississippi on Wednesday night.
Wright, a graduate transfer from Vanderbilt and a Baton Rouge area native, scored six of LSU’s nine points to close the first half and eight of Tigers’ 10 points to open the second half. He finished with seven rebounds, five assists and seven steals.
“I watched what they (Mississippi) did to Florida,” Wright said of the Rebels’ 103-85 win on Jan. 10. “They just dominated that game. It put a chip on my shoulder. I was like, ‘There’s no way they’re going to do that to us.’”
Jalen Cook added 16 points for LSU (11-6, 3-1 Southeastern Conference). Tyrell Ward contributed 11, including a trio of 3-pointers in two minutes during a 13-4 run that boosted the Tigers’ lead to 64-48 with 9:48 left to play.
LSU coach Matt McMahon said the genesis of the Tigers’ first win over a ranked team this season started in the second half of Saturday’s 93-78 loss at Auburn. The Tigers cut a 28-point Auburn second-half lead to 8 points with 2:12 left.
“Disappointed we weren’t able to win, but I thought that was an important step for us as a team to get back in the game,” McMahon said.
LSU led 77-62 with 3:18 before Mississippi’s pressing defense caused two missed shots and two turnovers in a 10-0 run.
A deep corner 3-pointer by Mike Williams III stopped the bleeding and the Tigers hit 9 of 10 free throws in the final 32 seconds.
Mississippi (15-2, 2-2) got the bulk of its scoring from Matthew Murrell, Jaylen Murray and Allen Flanigan, all ranked among the SEC’s top 20 scorers.
Murray had 23 points, Flanigan 20 and Murrell 19 for the Rebels, who made their last 4 of 8 shots to avoid their worst field goal shooting performance of the season.
“We played a well-coached team with good, experienced players,” Mississippi first-year coach Chris Beard said. “They (LSU) have a defensive identity. They try to get you to turn the ball over, and we fell for it early.”
LSU chased Mississippi almost the entire first half before finally taking the lead on a Wright steal and with 1:45 left, then retaking it on a Cook 3-pointer with 1:04 remaining that held up for a 35-33 halftime advantage.
Wright said McMahon emphasized that the Tigers needed a quick start in the second half — “Coach called a couple of big plays for me,” Wright said — before Ward broke open the game, swishing three straight 3s from the deep left wing.
Stay up to date with the latest news, weather and sports by downloading the WGNO app on the Apple or Google Play stores and by subscribing to the WGNO newsletter.
