Beshara's three lifts Tigers

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Louisiana State returned to its winning ways in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since Shaquille O'Neal dominated the middle for the Tigers eight years ago. <br><br>Brian

Friday, March 17th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Louisiana State returned to its winning ways in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since Shaquille O'Neal dominated the middle for the Tigers eight years ago.

Brian Beshara hit a 3-pointer with 17.8 seconds remaining to give fourth-seeded LSU a 64-61 victory over 13th-seeded Southeast Missouri State on Thursday in the West Regional.

Louisiana State's Torris Bright (3) runs over Southeast Missouri State's Roderick Johnson.
"I was trying to do something with the dribble, maybe penetrate, do something inside. My guy was coming at me so I pump-faked, then I shot it," Beshara said.

In the tournament for the first time since 1993, the Tigers (27-5) hadn't won a first-round game since O'Neal blocked a tournament-record 11 shots in a victory over BYU in 1992.

"We weren't sure how to approach the game, except play hard and try to find a way to get easy baskets," said LSU's Stromile Swift, who had 13 points and six blocked shots.

Beshara's first points of the second half came with three seconds left on the shot clock and snapped a 61-all tie.

"A team that doesn't play as well as it should finds a way to win and that's what happened today," said LSU coach John Brady, who has only nine scholarship players available because of NCAA violations committed before he arrived in Baton Rouge.

"For the first 30 minutes, they beat us from six feet in. The last five or six minutes, our team did enough to win."

After two timeouts, the ball got away from Southeast Missouri's Antonio Short. Roderick Johnson picked it off the floor for the tying shot, but the ball bounced off the rim and backboard as time expired.

One issue for sluggish LSU: the Tigers are all green to the NCAA Tournament. Sure, they won the SEC West title this season, but this was new territory. Stromile Swift, the SEC's best talent, and Jabari Smith, one of the top centers in the nation, have never been in this position. No one should be surprised they struggled Thursday. Now, they should be able to advance with a game under their belt.
"I prayed for it to go in, but it just eased out of there and didn't fall," Johnson said.

Jabari Smith led the Tigers with 17 points.

Torris Bright also had 13 points.

"The reason we showed a lot of frustration is because we knew we were better than we showed," Smith said. "We just knew we could find a way to win."

Johnson had 19 points and 11 rebounds for the Indians (24-7) of the Ohio Valley Conference, who were playing their first-ever game in the NCAA Tournament after becoming a Division I school in 1992.

"All we asked for is to have a chance to win at the end. We had a chance," Indians coach Gary Garner said.

There were six ties in a second half narrowly controlled by the Indians, who recovered after shooting a dismal 16 percent in the first half. Still, they hit just 20 of 58 field goals for the game.

"I told them to keep playing hard and those shots would start falling," Garner said.

Southeast Missouri took its first lead of the game on a 3-pointer by Short with 15:34 remaining.

Another 3-pointer by Short gave the Indians a 53-49 lead with 5:34 left. They wouldn't have that much breathing room again.

The Tigers scored five straight points, including three free throws, to take a 54-53 lead.

The teams traded one-point leads for the next minute until Brian Bunche converted two free throws to put the Indians ahead 59-56 with 2:25 left.

Swift scored inside to draw LSU within one before Johnson scored to put Southeast Missouri in front for the last time, 61-58, with 1:39 left.

Bright, who hit 3-of-4 3-pointers, converted from long-range to tie it with 1:18 left. Bunche put up an airball and Beshara hit the 3-pointer that won the game.

The bigger Tigers barely won the battle of the boards, 36-35.

The Indians trailed 24-19 at halftime despite hitting just four field goals.