BATON ROUGE — All five LSU starters registered double-digit scoring efforts as the Tigers handed McNeese State an 87-68 loss Wednesday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Sophomore Ronald Dupree added his fourth double-double of the season as the Tigers improved to 10-0 all-time against the Cowboys. Dupree poured in 19 points and 13 boards in 37 minutes of action.
The game marked a number of season high’s and low’s for LSU. The Tigers shot a season-best 34 of 55 (.618) from the field besting a 33-for-55 (.600) shooting effort against Texas Southern on Dec. 8. LSU also pulled down 32 defensive rebounds on the evening, one better than the 31 defensive boards registered against Louisiana-Monroe in the opening game of the season on Nov. 20.
The Tigers committed a season-high 25 turnovers matching the most since a 69-67 loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks on March 11 in last year’s SEC Tournament semifinal. This is also the first time this year that the Tigers were on the negative side of the assits-to-turnover ratio.
“There are a lot of positive things our team did tonight,” said LSU head coach John Brady. “For the second game in a row we shot over 60 percent. McNeese State has been averagin 18 offensive rebounds a game, they got 12. We beat them on the boards, 43-26.”
LSU (5-0) and McNeese State (2-3) traded opening baskets until a technical foul on Dupree for hanging on the rim led to the Cowboy’s first lead of the game, 3-2. Within the opening 3:54 of the contest, the teams traded leads four times until a lay-up by Brian Beshara at the 16:06 mark sparked a 10-0 run and gave LSU the lead for the final time, 14-5.
Following the 12:00 official timeout, a technical foul was called on the McNeese State bench. Collis Temple III went to the line and hit a pair of free-throws extending his streak of consecutive made free-throws to 18 and giving LSU a 16-8 lead. Temple finished with 16 points scoring double figures in all five game this season.
The Tigers were able to extend their lead by as many as 12 after a three pointer by Lamont Roland. But back-to-back three pointers by the Cowboy’s Demond Mallet cut the LSU lead, 26-20. Mallet finished the night with 31 points on 6-of-11 shooting from three-point range. Mallet is the first opponent to score more than 30 points against the Tigers since Travis Robinson of Fresno State scored 33 points on Nov. 28, 1999.
The teams would again trade buckets until a set play freed Dupree for an alley-oop from Torris Bright. On the ensuing Tiger possession, Bright found Beshara cutting to the basket for the dunk giving LSU a double-digit lead again, 35-25, with 3:00 to play until half. Bright finished with a game-high eight assists adding to his team-leading total.
“Other than the 25 turnovers we had, our field goal percentage, our free throw percentage, our rebounding margin were all excellent,” Brady said. “Our half court defense was solid for most of the game and our fist, our zone defense really, I think, changed the game as it went along.”
LSU was able to hold its double-digit lead into the second-half until the Cowboy’s Bryant Chauncy added his only point of the game and cut the LSU lead, 46-37, with 17:24 left. McNeese State cut the lead to as little as seven, until Temple went to the free throw line, hitting his first and missing his second ending his streak of consecutive made free throws at 19.
A Roland layup after a 20-second timeout gave LSU a double-digit lead again, 49-39, with 15:58 left in the game. Roland finshed with 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting and hit three out of four three pointers.
McNeese State was able to close the LSU lead to nine again after Mallet’s sixth three-pointer of the evening, but the Tigers proved to be to much for the Cowboys. LSU put together a 16-2 run capped by a pair of Bright free-throws which gave LSU its largest lead of the game, 80-56, at the 4:56 mark. Bright finshed with 15 points and was an impressive 8-of-10 performance from the free-throw line.
Next up for LSU is the UNO Privateers. The Tigers play host this Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. The halftime ceremonies will honor former LSU great, Shaquille O’Neal, by retiring his jersey.