Thomas’s heroics lead overtime win over BC

Wesley Hale-Imagn Images

By Hunt Palmer

THE STORY

An offense that sizzled in Florida over the weekend froze in Boston. Until Dedan Thomas caught fire.

The junior point guard rescued the LSU offense with four late points to erase a four-point Eagle lead in the final 1:09 of regulation to force overtime. He then scored the first six points of the overtime period and with the Tigers up four moments later he drove the baseline and found a wide-open Max McKinnon for a lethal three ball to swell the lead to seven with 1:46 to play.

LSU beat Boston College 78-69.

The Tigers couldn’t muster any sort of offensive punch in the second half and coughed up a 12-point lead to a .500 Boston College team in the ACC-SEC Challenge.

For a month, the Tigers have been among the nation’s leaders in field goal percentage and free throw attempts. Neither was a strength on Wednesday night. And the three ball wasn’t there to bail the Tigers out, either. LSU shot a putrid 27 percent from the floor in the second half, and Thomas made the last two. To that point, LSU was 7-for-32 for 22 percent including 1-for-11 from three-point range.

LSU went over four minutes without a point twice in the second half. The first spurred a 12-0 run by the Eagles. The second, from 8:59 to 4:45 to play in the game, allowed an 8-0 run that gave Boston College its first lead of the game.

That’s when Thomas took over.

Matt McMahon has been in desperate need of a point guard since he arrived, and Thomas appears to be the guy. In the first half, LSU was plus-15 in Thomas’s 17 minutes. In the other three, they were minus four on 1-for-4 shooting with a pair of fouls on Michael Nwoko. All the rhythm was gone.

Overtime was an offensive clinic. LSU made all three field goals and all 10 free throws. That stretch of offense mirrored the last 5:09 of the first half when the Tigers made eight straight shots. Those two stretches showed LSU’s offensive potential while the majority of the second half was a slog.

The Tigers deserve a ton of credit for going on the road and winning with their C-game. That game is going to get LSU beat against good teams. Boston College doesn’t qualify. But the Tigers are 8-0 for the first time since 2021-2o22.