LSU holds on to defeat Texas Tech

Published Dec. 18, 2013 9:59 p.m. ET

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LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) -- Anthony Hickey scored 16 points and sank four 3-pointers to lead LSU past Texas Tech 71-69 Wednesday night.

Shavon Coleman added 13 points for the Tigers (7-2) and hit three 3-pointers of his own, while Andre Stringer added 12 points and dished out four assists. Johnny O'Bryant III also had 12 points.

Jaye Crockett led Texas Tech (7-4) with 18 points and Rob Turner contributed 14.

LSU out-shot Texas Tech from the field 52 percent to 36 percent. The Tigers got out on top early and led by as many as 11 points, 29-18, with 9:20 left in the first half on a jumper by Malik Morgan.

The Red Raiders would fight back and tie it up 44-44 on a Toddrick Gotcher 3-pointer with 18:47 left in the second half but couldn't break away.

A layup by O'Bryant with 3:28 left in the game extended LSU's lead to nine points but Turner and Crockett had invested too much into this game to let it end like that.

Crockett sank a 3-pointer to pull within four, 71-67, with 2:27 left in the game and the home crowd erupted, believing their Red Raiders could pull off the comeback.

Crockett came through again when he stole the ball from Coleman to put the ball back in his team's hands with 1:48 left. Six seconds later, Turner finished the play with a one-handed slam to make it 71-69.

A traveling call against O'Bryant gave the ball back to Tech, but Mickey blocked a Turner lay-up attempt to regain possession. The Red Raiders defense answered yet again, forcing LSU to run out the shot clock.

With 10.2 seconds to go, a play was drawn up to send Turner in on a high-percentage shot, but the Red Raiders couldn't get their screens set and it resulted in an off-balanced three-point attempt at the buzzer that fell short.

Dejan Kravic scored eight points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Red Raiders and Jordan Tolbert pulled down six more boards.

LSU did a better job distributing the ball to the open man and finished the game with 15 assists to Tech's eight.

LSU got into foul trouble early as four of its five starters - Hickey, O'Bryant, Martin and Mickey - all went into the half with two fouls. The bench would help out, scoring 18 points in the first half and 22 on the night. Mickey picked up his third foul just seconds into the second half and his fourth seven minutes later.

LSU committed 27 team fouls which sent Tech to the line 39 times. The Red Raiders sank 31 of those attempts to keep in reach.