ALMOST A MASTERPIECE: LSU's LATE SHOT ELIMINATES SOUTHEAST

Southeast Missouri's Roderick Johnson helplessly watched the ball through the legs of LSU's Jermaine Williams in the first half.

Southeast Missouri guard Michael Stokes looked to pass to a teammate while being defensed by LSU's Lamont Roland during Thursday's NCAA Tournament game.

SALT LAKE CITY -- For LSU it rattled in, for Southeast Missouri State it rattled out.

That was the difference between Southeast Missouri State and the 10th ranked team in the nation.

Southeast (24-7) came just inches from overtime and a shot at winning an NCAA Tournament game in its first opportunity, but a Louisiana State 3-pointer with 18 seconds left sealed the Indians' fate as the fourth-seeded Tigers (27-5) knocked off the 13th seeded Indians 64-61 in a West Regional thriller at the Huntsman Center on Thursday.

After Southeast -- the OVC Tournament champions -- held the lead for much of the second half, LSU's Brian Beshara hit a three from just left of the key to give the Tigers a 64-61 lead.

After moving the ball to halfcourt and calling two timeouts, Southeast inbounded the ball with 15 seconds left.

LSU's defense had Southeast scrambling and nearly made a steal, but Roderick Johnson picked up a loose ball and got off a 3-pointer with two seconds left that danced in and out of the rim.

"I prayed for that shot to go in, but it just eased out of there," said Johnson, Southeast's leading scorer with 19 points. "It just didn't go."

Overall, Southeast accomplished its main objectives.

It controlled the tempo, it kept LSU -- which had an obvious height advantage -- from dominating the boards and, most importantly, it kept the game close.

"I said in the pre-tournament press conference that all I asked for was to be close and have a chance to win it at the end, and we were close and had a chance to win it at the end," said Southeast coach Gary Garner.

Garner also said at that same press conference that if the Indians could find a way to keep LSU off the offensive glass, they would have a shot.

LSU outrebounded Southeast 36-35, but the Indians had a 14-9 advantage in the offensive rebound category.

"I told Gary Garner his team played well enough and deserved to win," said LSU coach John Brady. "They seemed to be more aggressive. In the last five minutes, our team did enough good things to win."

Southeast actually had three four-point leads in the game, the last coming at the 5:38 mark.

With 2:08 left and Southeast leading 59-56, Antonio Short rebounded a LSU shot, but the ball was stripped away by Lamont Roland who found Swift under the basket for a layup to make it 59-58.

With just 1:39 to go the Indians went ahead 61-58 lead when Mike Branson threaded a brilliant pass to a cutting Johnson for an easy layup.

But LSU point guard Torris Bright responded with a three to tie the game at 61 with 1:19 to go. On Southeast's next possession, center Brian Bunche missed a 17-foot jumper with :54 left.

With Southeast playing sticky defense, Bright was forced to try to create his own shot, was cut off in the lane and found Beshara on the left wing.

Beshara used a pump fake to get Branson in the air then smoothly hit the game-winning three.

"I hadn't been shooting like I can," said Beshara. "I'm just glad I was able to come through for the team. The team is the most important thing."

Jabari Smith led LSU with 17 points and Stromile Swift and Bright each had 13.

After trailing by as many as 10 points in the first half, Southeast crawled back and tied the game at 28-28 when Brian Bunch capped a 6-0 run with a 17-foot jumper at the 17:35 mark of the second half.

Southeast took just its second lead of the game -- the last one a 2-0 advantage -- with 15:30 remaining when Short, who had 14 points, hit a three to give the Indians a 33-32 lead. The Indians didn't go away for the remainder of the game.

The tight second half looked improbable as Southeast got off to a slow start.

The Indians led the game 2-0 on a quick, fastbreak basket by Short in the opening seconds of the game, but missed their next five shots and turned the ball over three times in its next seven possessions as LSU went on a 10-0 run.

Michael Stokes stopped the drought at the 14:12 mark when he hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 10-5.

LSU took its only double-figure lead of the game at the 7:28 mark when Collis Temple hit the second of two free throws to put his team up 18-8.

Southeast got back to within five at the 2:49 mark of the first half when Short hit two free throws to make it 21-16.

On the Indians' next possession Emmanuel McCuthison hit a three to cut the deficit to 21-19.

Louisiana State led 24-19 at halftime but the Indians entered the second half with confidence, despite shooting a miserable 16 percent (4-of-25) from the field.

"I told our kids at halftime that we only have four field goals and only shot 16 percent and I felt like in the first half we had some pretty good looks at the baskets," said Garner. "I told them those shots will start falling."