TIGER RAG NEWS SERVICES
TALLAHASSEE, Florida – Three newly cleared LSU basketball transfers made their debuts on Saturday afternoon in the starting lineup as coach Will Wade used an exhibition-season-high eight players, but the Tigers fell in a thriller, 89-87, at Florida State.
UCLA transfer senior guard Skyy Clark, who just cleared on Tuesday, started and led LSU with 21 points, including 7-of-12 shooting from three-point range, and had eight rebounds in 33 minutes. Clark hit a trio of three-pointers in the final 90 seconds of the game to get LSU within 79-78 at the 1:30 mark, 85-81 with 40 seconds left and 88-86 with seven seconds to go, but the Tigers couldn’t get over the hump in final seconds.
Point guard Donovan Dent, who was Clark’s teammate at UCLA, scored 24 points on 9-of-17 shooting with nine assists in 30 minutes in his third exhibition game.
Also making their LSU debuts in addition to Clark were 6-foot-11 senior center Brice Dessert of the Andalou Efes pro team in Istanbul, Turkey, and 6-6 junior forward Saliou Niang of the Virtus pro team in Bologna, Italy. Dessert started and scored four points in two rebounds and a blocked shot in 15 minutes. Niang started and scored five points with seven rebounds, two assists and a steal in 23 minutes.
LSU’s fifth starter was 6-7 senior forward Mouhamed Dioubate, a transfer from Kentucky who scored eight poitns with six rebounds in 24 minutes.
Senior Abdi Bashir Jr., a transfer from Kansas State, came off the bench to scored 12 points on 4-of-10 shooting from three-point range in 29 minutes. Michael Ruzic, a 7-foot former pro player for Joventut in Catalonia, Spain, scored nine poitns with six rebounds in 24 minutes off the bench.
Junior Michigan State transfer guard Divine Ugochukwu scored four points with two assists and two rebounds in 18 minutes off the bench.
Shon Abaev led Florida State with 26 points.
LSU opens the regular season on Tuesday, Nov. 3 at home against LSU-New Orleans at 7 p.m.
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