BATON ROUGE — Coming off five straight losses after garnering a national ranking in late January, the LSU men’s basketball team earned a much needed victory on Wednesday evening, beating South Carolina, 71-58, in the Maravich Assembly Center.
The Tigers (13-7, 2-6 SEC) were led by four players in double figures scoring, including seniors Ronald Dupree and Collis Temple who each had 17 points.
Returning from a one-game suspension by the league office, center Jaime Lloreda recorded a double-double with 14 points and 15 rebounds.
First-time starter Xavier Whipple gave the Tigers the spark that head coach John Brady was searching for, as the Georgia native scored the first four points of the contest and helped set the tone of the Tigers victory.
The Tigers didn’t shot particularly well — 23 of 54 for 42.6 percent — but made 20 of 28 free throws (71.4 percent) and outrebounded South Carolina, 42-26.
South Carolina, which had also dropped five straight in the SEC coming into the evening, fell to 7-11 overall and 1-7 in the conference.
The Gamecocks were led by Carlos Powell, who had a game-high 18 points on 6-of-10 shooting. Rolando Howell was the only other play in double figures with 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting.
South Carolina who 40.4 percent from the field (21 of 52), but only 29 percent (10 of 34) aside from Powell and Howell.
The Tigers outshot the Gamecocks in the first half and led 36-25 at the break on the strength of four three-pointers and a 24-13 rebounding advantage.
After the game was tied at 16-16 at the 11:11 mark, LSU went on a 18-3 run to lead by 15, 34-19, with 2:19 to play in the half.
South Carolina narrowed the gap to seven three minutes into the second half, 38-31, on a jumper by Chris Warren. However, Lloreda answered with six points including four straight free throws to bring the lead back to 12.
A three-pointer by Bright with 14:11 to play matched LSU’s largest lead at 15, 47-32. But, again, the Gamecocks fought back with a 16-5 run to trail by only four, 52-48, at the 8:47 mark.
With six minutes to play, the LSU lead again grew to 10, 50-40, after an 8-2 run was capped by a pair of Bright free throws.
LSU would lead by no fewer than eight over the final four minutes.
The Tigers return to action on Saturday at 3 p.m. against Auburn on The Plains.