VIDEO: LSU’s firepower too much for Ole Miss

Published 11:03 pm Wednesday, January 13, 2016

BATON ROUGE, La. — Stefan Moody scored a career-high 33 points to lead four Ole Miss players in double figures, but it wasn’t enough Wednesday night as the Rebels fell to LSU, 90-81, at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

Ole Miss (12-4, 2-2 Southeastern Conference) led 43-40 at the half and by as many as six in the second half, but LSU (10-6, 3-1) went on a 10-2 run to go ahead 66-64 on three Antonio Blakeney free throws with 7:57 left. The Rebels led just once the rest of the way as LSU hit four of its last five shots and ended the game on a 7-0 run, snapping Ole Miss’ two-game winning streak and running their winning streak to three straight in the series.

Rasheed Brooks added 18 points for the Rebels while Sebastian Saiz had 13 points and seven rebounds. Anthony Perez chipped in 10 points and five boards, but LSU’s supporting cast did just as much damage to the Rebels with much of Ole Miss’ defensive attention focused on freshman phenom Ben Simmons.

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The Rebels held Simmons to pedestrian numbers by his standards. The 6-foot-10 forward, who came into the game averaging more than 20 points and 13 rebounds a game, had 15 points on 7 of 13 shooting and five boards, but his teammates helped offset Moody’s 11th straight 20-plus point game.

Craig Victor II led LSU with 18 points and six rebounds while Blakeney came off the bench to score 15. Blakeney had eight of his points in the final 6:01, giving the Tigers the lead for good with a layup with 3:40 left before draining a 3-pointer two possessions later to give them an 83-78 lead.

Tim Quarterman went 4-for-4 from the floor and made all four of his free throws to finish with 14 points. Keith Hornsby added 10 for the Tigers, who shot 55.6 percent from the field for the game and a blistering 70.8 percent in the second half.

The Tigers outscored Ole Miss 35-5 in bench points.

The Rebels came in next to last in the SEC in field-goal percentage but led by as many as eight in the first half thanks to knocking down 43 percent of their shots. Moody, who had a season-high six 3-pointers and finished 10 of 18 from the floor, had 16 points in the first 20 minutes, 12 of them coming on four 3s.

Simmons sat the final 8:45 of the half after picking up his second foul, but the Rebels couldn’t extend the lead. LSU went up 35-32 on Josh Gray’s 3 before the Rebels answered with a 9-0 run and took a three-point lead into the break.

Fouls were a theme as 40 whistles were blown. Nine players had at least three fouls with Saiz, Perez and Martavious Newby all finishing with four.

Watch Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy discuss the loss in the following video.

Ole Miss will be home Saturday to take on Florida at 7 p.m.