• By GARY LANEY
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Feb 5, 2010

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Bo Spencer was having one of those nights Thursday.

The 3-point shot was falling for him. It was going so well that at one point in the second half, he was rewarded with a nice long-range kiss off the glass that he didn’t even call. He also made tough teardrop one-handers in the lane. Even the floating baseline jumper, the one coach Trent Johnson once lamented he makes once in every 900 tries, fell on this night.

In most scenarios you dreamed up where LSU beats a top Southeastern Conference team, it probably involved Spencer going off like he did Thursday in a 25-point outburst against No. 14 Tennessee.

But there was one problem: LSU still lost.

In a 59-54 defeat that dropped the Tigers to 9-13 and 0-8 in the SEC, the worst offense in the conference couldn’t take advantage of a big night from one of its stars at home. Much like the 84-80 home loss to Auburn on Jan. 20 where the Tigers wasted a season-high 38 points from Tasmin Mitchell, LSU walked away wondering what it’s going to take to win an SEC game.

On this night, LSU defended a high-scoring Tennessee team well, got an 8-for-19 shooting night from Spencer and still couldn’t close the deal. It came back to the same thing it’s been all year for the Tigers.

Somebody besides Spencer or Mitchell has to step up. Or, LSU has to have the good fortune of having both of its stars absolutely on fire on the same night. That hasn’t happened yet in SEC play.

Against Tennessee, Mitchell didn’t have his best offensive night, shooting 4-for-12 while missing a couple of chip shots he usually makes and a couple of jump shots that, when he’s hot, he buries.

Against Auburn, Mitchell was feeling it, shooting 15-for-22, but Spencer wasn’t right, going 4-for-17.

If Mitchell shot the ball Thursday the way he did against Auburn, in Johnson’s words, “We’re all smiling.”

But it’s awfully hard to get two players, even as talented as Mitchell or Spencer, to have a game on the same night like Mitchell had against Auburn or Spencer had Thursday. Not with defenses consistently hounding the only two players opponents think can beat them.

Against Tennessee, Spencer and Mitchell scored 38 of LSU’s 54 points and the rest of the Tigers — we’re talking nine players who combined to log 124 minutes — managed 16 points on 6-for-28 shooting.

And there were some good looks, plenty of open perimeter jumpers. “Without looking at the tape, I have to believe we missed our share of open shots,” Johnson said.