BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s basketball team shot 52.7 percent from the field including 61.5 percent in the second half while forcing 28 turnovers to beat hapless Houston, 80-51, on Wednesday evening in the Maravich Assembly Center.
The victory was the 45th straight non-conference home win for LSU, which improved to 10-2 on the season and bounced back from a loss at Georgia on Sunday. Houston fell to 2-9 overall, as it completed its pre-Conference USA schedule. The Tigers also improved to 35-0 under head coach John Brady when scoring 80 points.
Senior forward Ronald Dupree led the way for LSU with 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting in 29 minutes of action. He also added 7-of-8 free throws. Collis Temple III scored 14 points and grabbed a team-high six rebounds, while Torris Bright earned his fourth career double double with 11 points and 10 assists, two shy of his career high. Guard Antonio Hudson was the fourth Tiger in double figures scoring with 10.
The Tigers scored 26 points off 28 Cougar turnovers and committed only 10 of their own. LSU also outscored Houston in the paint, 42-16, despite being outrebounded 38-27 without starting forward Jaime Lloreda, who missed the game with a knee injury suffered against Georgia.
Houston, which lost its sixth straight dating back to Dec. 9, shot only 17 of 47 from the field (36.2 percent) including 4-of-14 from three-point range. The Cougars were led by forward Louis Truscott who had a double double with 12 points and 15 rebounds.
The Tigers scored the first five points of the game and led by seven, 12-5, on a pair of free throws by Dupree with 14:48 remaining in the half. As both teams struggled to get in gear offensively midway through the half, LSU was able to go up eight, 17-9, on a three-pointer by Hudson.
Houston, which made only four of its first 16 shots from the field, scored on three straight trips to cut the lead to 17-15 at the 5:40 mark.
Shooting less than 35 percent from the field with 3:15 to play, Temple and Bright hit back-to-back three-pointers — LSU’s second and third of the half in 10 attempts — to extend the lead to seven, 27-20.
After a jumper by Dyer with 2:04 to play, the Tigers scored the final eight points of the half to take a 37-22 advantage. Mitchell followed a Dupree alley-oop and culminated the run by drawing a charge on the defensive end with 5.4 seconds remaining before hitting a three-pointer at the buzzer.
The Tigers scored 11 of the second half’s first 15 points to open a 48-26 lead with just less than 16 minutes to play, as head coach John Brady took out starters Dupree and Bridgewater en lieu of reserve forward Thomas Davis and guard Tony Gipson.
Houston was able to cut the lead to 17 midway through the second half, however, the Tigers responded with a 13-3 run capped by a flying dunk by Dupree. The Tigers led 65-37 with 8:47 to play.
LSU led by as many as 34, 73-34, with 4:37 to play when Brady emptied his bench.
Reserve guard Tim Bush became the 17th Tiger to record a point this season, hitting a free throw with 1:49 to play.
With only 44 seconds left in the contest, reserve guard — and son of former Tigers All-American “Pistol” Pete — Josh Maravich hit a 15-footer to give LSU its 80th point. Under Brady, the Tigers improved to 35-0 when scoring 80 points.
LSU returns to action on Saturday at 7 p.m. CST when the Tigers open their home conference schedule against eighth-ranked Mississippi State.