NEW ORLEANS — No. 24 LSU successfully defended its first national ranking since 2000 Saturday afternoon holding Tulane without a field goal for seven-minutes late in the second half to give the Tigers a 74-62 win over the Green Wave in the second game of the Nokia Sugar Bowl Classic at the New Orleans Arena.
In the opening game, 16th-ranked Mississippi State made it a complete sweep for the Southeastern Conference with a 54-45 win over fifth-ranked Oklahoma.
A crowd of 11,177 was on hand for the doubleheader as the SEC ran its record to 7-1 in the event. LSU had three players in double figures with Ronald Dupree leading the way with 22 points in 35 minutes. Torris Bright had 17 points and six assists, while Darrel Mitchell hit four treys for 12 points with four steals. Waitari Marsh led Tulane with 27 points, with Brandon Brown adding 14 and Nick Sinville 11.
LSU, now 8-1 and winners of six straight, quickly goes back to play Monday at 7 p.m. at the Maravich Assembly Center against the University of New Orleans, a team that beat LSU, 60-59, last year at Lakefront Arena. Tickets for the game will be on sale Monday from 1-5 p.m. at the LSU Athletic Ticket Office and at the Assembly Center upper concourse box office beginning at 5:30 p.m.
Tickets are available Sunday and Monday on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net.
“Tulane at times was tougher than we were today,” said LSU Coach John Brady. “We played well enough to win by 12. We had good individual plays by players. Bright continues to play well. He had a good days work, he only had Brandon (Spann) drive by him one time.”
LSU was up two at the half, 34-32, tried to sprint away early as Antonio Hudson and Mitchell hit threes to give LSU a 44-36 lead with 16:50 to play, forcing Tulane to take a 30-second time out. The Wave came back to cut it to four, 46-42, two minutes later on a lay up by Wayne Tinsley.
But the Tigers proved tougher on the offensive end as Mitchell hit another three to go up, 49-42, and then Collis Temple III hit a trey and the lead increased to 10, 52-42, with 13:03 to go. While LSU appeared in control, Marsh was keeping Tulane in the contest, cutting the margin to three, 54-51, with 8:54 to go on a Brandon Brown lay in. The lead would stay four at 57-53 on a jumper by Marsh, but the Green Wave would score only free throws for the next seven minutes, while the Tiger offense exploded. Temple hit a three, followed by a Jaime Lloreda (10 rebounds) bucket to push the margin to nine, 62-53.
Following two wave charity tosses, Dupree and Bright capitalized on the alley oop with Bright throwing to Dupree for the dunk and back-to-back layups by Temple and Lloreda made it 68-55 with 3:01 to play. The Tigers biggest lead of the game came with 23 seconds left at 74-60 as the Wave finally got a field goal by Brandon Brown with 1:13 to play.
“Torris Bright was a big difference in the ball game,” said Tulane Coach Shawn Finney, who saw his team drop to 5-6. “He shot six-of-seven from the field and controlled the game. He shot lights out. There were a couple of shots here and there that could have made a difference, but give LSU credit, they answered every run.”
The first half was a close affair throughout with nine lead changes including seven in a period from 15:33 to 11:58 of the first half between TV time outs. LSU would eventually open up a nine-point, 28-19 advantage with 7:30 to play, but the Wave came right back, scoring the next eight points, capped by a three-point play by Sinville to knock the LSU lead to 28-27 with 3:50 to play.
The Tigers got it back to four twice in the final minutes of the opening stanza before Tinsley had a lay up with seven seconds to play to make the Tigers lead two, 34-32, at intermission.
For the game, LSU hit 28-of-54 field goal attempts (51.9 percent), including 16-of-29 in the second half (55.2 percent). The Tigers were 11-of-21 from three-point range, over 50 percent in both halves. LSU was also a perfect 7-of-7 from the charity stripe.
Tulane shot 40.3 percent for the game, just 34.4 percent in the second half. The Wave was 5-of-18 from three-point range and the teams were even at 32 in rebounds. LSU had 19 assists, 11 turnovers, 7 blocks and 6 steals.