State's Gordon takes over game

• By RANDY ROSETTA
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Mar 9, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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STARKVILLE, Miss. — It wasn’t an explosive turn of events. Instead it was more a slow death for LSU on Saturday when it squared off with Mississippi State at Humphrey Coliseum.

The Tigers turned in a solid first-half performance and surged to a 43-42 lead at halftime — scoring more points and making more field goals than they did in a loss to the Bulldogs on Jan. 9 in the Southeastern Conference opener.

Then in the early stages of the second half, LSU had State on its heels with six quick points, including a pair of fast-break baskets from Chris Johnson that stretched the Tigers’ lead to 49-44.

But two fouls on Johnson in 58 seconds — his third and fourth — sent him to the bench. Without half of LSU’s shot-blocking tandem to worry about, State point guard Jamont Gordon saw an opportunity to take over.

Starting with a pair of free throws when he penetrated and fouled by Johnson, Gordon scored 12 points over the next 10‰ minutes to ignite a methodical 24-5 Bulldogs surge that flipped the five-point deficit into a 68-54 lead with 7:20 left in the game.

Gordon his three floor shots, including a 3-point dagger that gave State a 62-52 cushion. The burly 6-foot-4, 230-pound guard also repeatedly broke down the LSU defense off the dribble, either drawing a foul or feeding teammates for easy hoops.

It didn’t take LSU interim coach Butch Pierre more than a split second to explain how State turned things around.

“Jamont Gordon,” Pierre said, shaking his head. “He played like an all-league guard. He did a good job off the ball screen of getting into the paint. He made good decisions, he didn’t turn the ball over, he got the ball to the right guys at the right time and he finished balls around the goal.”

“I tried to get my teammates easy shots and create shots for myself,” said Gordon, who finished with 23 points, nine rebounds and four assists.

Gordon didn’t carry the whole load. Charles Rhodes closed out his State home career with 27 points and 10 rebounds. But Gordon was the catalyst against an LSU defense that has effectively clamped down most opposing stars the last few weeks.

The LSU guards took turns trying to slow Gordon and nothing worked that well. Even Garrett Temple, LSU’s defensive stopper, had his hands full.

“He’s real good when he gets a head of steam,” Temple said. “We had trouble stopping him, especially off the ball screens. That’s where he did a lot of damage and we didn’t have an answer for him when he got into the lane. Once he got going, their post guys were rolling and we didn’t know exactly what we needed to do. We were indecisive and they took advantage of us.”