BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Derrick Byars scored 18 points and Shan Foster added a pair of baskets in the final minutes to give Vanderbilt its fifth straight victory over a ranked team with a 64-53 triumph over LSU (No. 22 ESPN/USA Today; No. 21 AP) on Wednesday night.
LSU was doomed by a poor start and Vanderbilt (14-6, 4-2 SEC), coming off of victories over Alabama and Kentucky, remained consistent enough down the stretch to hold of a charge by the Tigers in the final 10 minutes.
Vanderbilt led 51-34 after Ted Skuchas’ jump hook made it 51-34 with a little over 10 minutes to play.
Tasmin Mitchell and Garrett Temple fueled an 18-6 LSU run to get the Tigers (13-6, 2-3) as close as 55-49 with 2:56 left.
Foster followed with a layup and a 3-pointer to halt the Tigers’ momentum and send the fans to the exits.
Foster finished with 14 points, as did Dan Cage, while Byars and Alex Gordon each grabbed 10 rebounds.
Mitchell led LSU with 16 points, while Temple and Glen Davis each scored 12. Davis, who was averaging 18.6 points per game coming in, was called for his fourth foul with eight minutes remaining and sat out several key minutes thereafter.
LSU was out of synch and cold shooting early, resulting in a quick double-digit deficit.
The Tigers hit only one of their first 10 shots and turned the ball over four times in the first seven minutes. Foster had seven points during that span, including a 3-pointer and Cage’s 3-pointer shortly after gave Vanderbilt a 16-3 lead.
LSU also had trouble shooting over the 6-foot-11 Skuchas, who had four blocks in the first half.
Byars, who scored 23 points in Vanderbilt’s victory over Kentucky last weekend, had 11 points in the opening 20 minutes, including a layup when Cage found him on a cut to the basket to give the Commodores a 23-8 lead.
LSU shot only 29.4 percent in the first half, and that was after Mitchell found his outside shot late in the period, hitting a pair of 3-pointers and another jumper to help the Tigers trim their deficit to 34-24 at halftime.
