By Chris Macaluso
LSUsports.net
The LSU men’s basketball team opened the 2000-2001 regular season Monday night with a 92-49 victory over intra-state rival UL-Monroe.
The win was the fifth straight for LSU in season openers. UL-Monroe fell to 1-1 after a season-opening win over Samford.
“I thought our team showed up with effort and played extremely hard particularly defensively,” said Tiger Coach John Brady. “We got our hands on a lot of loose balls and I compliment our team for that.”
Four Tigers scored in double figures with point guard Torris Bright and forward Ronald Dupree leading the way, both with 21 points. Bright also added nine assists, five rebounds and four steals while Dupree had 11 rebounds while shooting 9-11 from the free throw line.
The Indians were led by forward Kevin Paige who finished 9-17 from the floor for 18 points.
LSU forced 28 Indian turnovers while the Tigers handled the ball well, giving it away just seven times. The Tiger defense held UL-Monroe to just 31.6 percent shooting from the field for the game.
A three pointer from Bright at the 17:48 mark of the first half highlighted a 7-2 Tiger run to start the game. Bright finished 2-4 from the three point stripe. LSU shot just 4-18 from beyond the arch as a team.
UL-Monroe cut LSU’s lead to one at 7-6 with 16:10 to play in the half when Indian forward Charles Sanders slammed in a Michael Hardaway pass.
But that was as close as the Indians would get as the LSU defense held UL-Monroe to just nine points the remainder of the half.
Meanwhile, the Tiger offense put together scoring runs of 11-0 and 13-0 to put the game out of reach before the halftime buzzer. UL-Monroe scored the last five points of the first to make halftime score 39-17. The Indians made just 8-of-24 shots in the first half.
LSU also won the battle of the boards in the first, out rebounding UL-Monroe 25-19.
That margin shrunk by the end of the game to 47-46, but the Tiger lead increased exponentially. LSU outscored the undermanned Indians by 21 points in the second half, leading by as many as 48, 86-38 with 3:57 to play.
All 12 Tigers in uniform played.
Brady said there were a few things his team needed to improve upon as the season progresses but he was pleased overall with LSU performance.
“We need to rebound better. Our 47 rebound to their 46 is not what we need to be.” Brady said. “We are a better shooting team than 4-18 from three-point range. But I’d like to compliment our team and the way it tried to defend and create some scoring opportunities for us out of the defense.”
The Tigers next game is Saturday, Nov. 25th at 7 p.m. against Norfolk State at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.