LSU nips Mississippi St. in OT

BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA - Antonio Hudson set his personal single-game scoring high and LSU needed every point. <br> <br> Hudson scored 23 points and LSU rallied from a 15-point halftime deficit to snap a six-game losing streak with a 68-65 overtime victory over Mississippi State on Wednesday night. <br> <br> ``When I have fun I&#39;m comfortable and things start to go my way,&#39;&#39; Hudson said. ``It boosts my confidence to know that I&#39;m a starter now. Of course, it&#39;s my first 20-point game in my career and to do it in SEC play really brings my confidence up a lot.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Hudson scored with 2:59 left to break a 62-62 tie and give the Tigers (13-11, 3-8 Southeastern Conference) the lead for good on the way to their first win since Jan. 19, when they beat Auburn. <br> <br> ``The thing that we haven&#39;t done is find some points,&#39;&#39; said LSU coach John Brady. ``I told them if we could find a way to score 65 points, then we would have a chance to win the game.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> After Derrick Zimmerman made one of two free throws, Jason Wilson made his first basket since Jan. 23, putting LSU ahead 66-63 with 1:14 remaining. Marckell Patterson pulled the Bulldogs (18-7, 5-6) within 66-65 with 30 seconds left. <br> <br> Patterson stole the ball and called a timeout as he was falling out of bounds with 9.2 seconds left. Mississippi State was out of timeouts, so the Bulldogs were assessed a technical foul, but Torris Bright missed both free throws. <br> <br> Dupree stole the Bulldogs&#39; inbounds pass, was fouled and made both free throws with 6.4 seconds left. <br> <br> Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury praised his teams first-half effort, but added, ``It&#39;s a game of 40 minutes and we only played 20 the way you have to play it.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Dupree finished with 13 points and nine rebounds, while Jermaine Williams and Brad Bridgewater each had 10 points. <br> <br> ``The main thing we started doing was picking them up on the perimeters,&#39;&#39; Bright said. ``And we did a good job in the second half of containing Mario Austin.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Austin and Timmy Bowers, who was 5-of-7 from 3-point range, each had 17 points for Mississippi State, which is 1-5 on the road in the conference. Patterson finished with 16 points and Zimmerman had 10 points and six assists. <br> <br> LSU used a 17-0 run to tie the game at 52 on a 3-pointer by Hudson with 7:05 left. Bridgewater then gave LSU its first lead of the half with 6:22 remaining. <br> <br> Austin tied the game at 62 on two free throws with 1:09 left in regulation. <br> <br> ``What we did in the first half we just didn&#39;t do in the second half.&#39;&#39; Zimmerman said. ``The ball just didn&#39;t fall.&#39;&#39;

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/2/198780