BATON ROUGE — LSU survived a second half rally by the Wyoming Cowboys and went on to a 73-69 win Wednesday evening at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The win preserves a 14-game home win streak dating back to last season, and a 25-game home non-conference win streak dating back to a 70-64 loss to Lamar on Dec. 1, 1997.
All but one of the Tiger’s starting five hit in double figures while Ronald Dupree registered his sixth double double with a 15-point, 10 rebound performance.
Wyoming (9-3) was lead by Marcus Bailey who added 23 points on 9-of-16 shooting despite only a six point first half effort.
The Cowboys utilized a starting five that included a pair of 6’8″ forwards, a 6’10” center and a 6’5″ guard in Bailey. The tallest player the Tigers could counter with was 6’8″ forward, Brian Beshara.
Despite the taller line-up, the Tigers were able to out-rebound the Cowboys 13-6 in the early going. But as the game went on, Wyoming wore down the smaller Tigers out-rebounding them 51-to-40 by games end. Junior Josh Davis pulled down a career-high 18 boards for the Cowboys.
The key to the game was Wyoming’s inability to take advantage of Tiger miscues. LSU registered 18 turnovers in the contest, the second highest mark this season. Instead, the Cowboys turned the ball over 23 times, a season high.
LSU (9-1) was held to its second-worst shooting effort of the season hitting only 24-of-63 (.381) from the field. Wyoming was only able to produce a 27-of-68 (.397) showing from the floor, including only 2-of-21 (.095) from the three-point line.
“I thought that our team, for the first five or six minutes of the game, played as well as they possibly could,” LSU head coach John Brady said. “We were efficient offensively, and we were very good defensively. As the game wore on, the Wyoming team got more aggressive.”
Both teams began a sloppy first half of play combining for 27 first half turnovers. But it was the hot hand of Beshara that helped the Tigers open a 15-2 run in the opening 15:34. During the run, Beshara poured in 12 of his 14 first half points. Wyoming needed nearly nine minutes to reach the double-digit mark.
It wasn’t until Ronell Mingo knocked down a free throw for the Cowboys with 11:14 left, cutting the LSU lead, 24-10. Mingo finished with 11 points in 24 minutes of work.
During the opening 8:46, LSU shot and impressive 60 percent from the floor, including 3-of-5 shooting from behind the arc and more than doubled the Cowboys rebounding efforts, 13-to-6.
The Cowboys defense silenced the Tigers’ early success from the field, however. In the next 7:28, LSU connected only twice on nine shot attempts, and Wyoming closed the rebounding gap, 22-to-18.
The Cowboys were able to cut the LSU lead back to single digits for the first time since the 16:58 mark. A pair of free throws by Wyoming’s David Rottinghaus pulled the visiting Cowboys within eight, 32-24, with 3:02 left.
Rottinghaus provided a much needed spark with 11 points off the bench including a 6-of-7 effort from the free throw line in the first half and finished with 16 points, a career high.
Wyoming was able to reduce the LSU lead to as little as six a number of times, but a late surge and a three pointer by Lamont Roland gave the Tigers a 41-32 halftime lead.
The second half was all Wyoming to start. The Cowboys put together a 6-0 run cutting the LSU lead, 41-40, with 16:08 left to play.
The Tigers fought off the rally until a breakaway lay-up by Bailey gave Wyoming its first lead of the game, 50-49, with 11:34 left. But Dupree answered for the Tigers on the ensuing possession, and a jumper by LSU point guard Torris Bright extended the Tiger lead, 53-50.
Less than a minute later, the Cowboys’ Paris Corner knocked down just his second basket of the game on a breakaway dunk to give Wyoming a lead they would hold for the next 2:27.
A lay-up by Bright capped a 5-0 run by the sophomore and gave LSU the lead again, 62-61. Bright finished the game with 18 points, 14 in the second half, and shot 5-of-5 from the free throw line.
The two teams battled and exchanged leads four more times until Collis Temple, III hit a pair of free throws to give LSU final lead of the game. Temple went 5-of-6 from the line in the final 1:07. The sophomore has now scored double figures in nine of the Tigers 10 games.
“For as bad as we started out, to be down 16, we came back and got it to nine at halftime,” Wyoming head coach Steve McClain said. “We then came out and dominated the second half. You can go back to the start of the game and find mistakes, and that is what cost us at the end of the game.”
Both teams next open conference play. The Cowboys will travel to Utah in the initial Mountain West game for both schools. The Tigers will play host to No. 18 Alabama this Saturday in the teams’ SEC opener at 12:30 in the Assembly Center in a regionally televised game on Jefferson Pilot Sports.