SHREVEPORT, La. — LSU Shreveport opened its men’s basketball season in Shreveport with a comeback. The ninth-ranked Pilots trailed East Texas Baptist 43-27 at halftime Monday at The Dock, then pulled even late and ran away in overtime for an 85-78 victory.
Alexzaye Johnson carried the load with a career-best 28 points on 12-of-20 shooting to go with eight assists and seven rebounds. Diego Eslava added 19, hitting four 3-pointers and all five of his free throws, and Doreante Tucker scored 16, also with four triples.
The rally started right after the break. Tucker hit three 3-pointers in a span of under four minutes, and an 11-2 burst capped by a Johnson jumper cut the gap to 53-52 with 11:54 to go. The second half featured nine ties.
LSUS finally went ahead 71-69 with 1:04 left when Johnson pulled down a defensive rebound and fed Terrance James for a dunk. The Tigers answered to tie it at 71, but came up empty on their final two tries, the last a long jumper at the horn.
Overtime belonged to the Pilots, who scored the first 12 points of the extra period. Nico Jones went 6 of 7 at the line for the night. Greg Dumas paced East Texas Baptist with 26 points. LSUS also won the assist battle 19-10.
The result goes on the LSUS record but counts only as an exhibition for ETBU, whose season starts Nov. 7 at home against Southwestern University. Coach Kyle Blankenship, in his 15th season, now takes the team to Parkville, Mo., to face No. 7 Georgetown on Friday and No. 3 Arizona Christian on Saturday. The Pilots return home Nov. 4 against No. 23 William Carey.
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