BATON ROUGE — It may be the holiday season, but the LSU Basketball team was in no giving mood Tuesday night, as they easily put away Tulane, 67-48 in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
LSU (7-0) forced 17 turnovers, producing 25 points, and controlled the tempo of the game. Although the Tigers committed 12 turnovers in the game, they had 15 assists to go along with it.
Tulane (5-3), losers of two straight games, has now lost to the Tigers for the second year in-a-row.
The Tigers were led in scoring by senior forward Jaime Lloreda, who once again posted big numbers with 22 points and 10 rebounds. This was Lloreda’s fourth double-double this season.
LSU also got a big performance from guard Darrel Mitchell, who hit four 3-pointers and finished with 19 points.
Tulane’s offense came mostly from forwards Wayne Tinsley and Vytas Tatarunas who contributed 12 points and 10 points, respectively. They were the only Greenies in double-figures.
LSU struggled early, but then regained its composure and controlled the game from the 8:09 mark in the 1st half thru the final minutes of the game. With 8:09 to play in the first half, and Tulane ahead 20-15, LSU went on a 17-0 run to end the half with a 32-20 lead.
This was due largely in part to Mitchell’s 11 first-half points, nine off 3’s.
Tulane got as close as nine in the second half, but with less than seven minutes to play, LSU scored the next six to go back up by 15.
Tulane tried to answer with a dunk by center Quincy Davis, but he was given a technical foul for taunting and fouled-out. LSU came right back with six more unanswered points to all but put it away at 56-36 with 4:42 left.
The Tigers will return to action after the holidays with a December 27 match-up against Alabama-Birmingham in the Nokia Sugar Bowl Classic. The game will be at 6 p.m. CST in the New Orleans Arena. It will also be televised by FOX Sports.