BATON ROUGE — The tenth-ranked LSU men’s basketball team got itself back on the winning track Wednesday night with a strong 91-57 win over McNeese State at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The Tigers (3-1) now go on the road Saturday to New Orleans to take on Tulane in the New Orleans Arena at 2 p.m. before returning home for what potentially could be a matchup of two top 10 teams when LSU hosts Texas A&M on Tuesday night at 8 p.m.
Five LSU players scored in double figures led by expected players Garrett Temple (17), Tasmin Mitchell (16), Glen Davis (15) and Darnell Lazare (11). But sophomore backup point guard Ben Voogd came off the bench to get a career high 12 points on 4-of-4 shooting, including two treys, in 21 minutes. Voogd’s stat line included six assists, no turnovers and two steals.
Voogd’s previous career high for scoring was five points last year.
“I thought Ben Voogd played well off the bench,” said LSU Coach John Brady. “He shoots pretty well when he gets his feet steady and he had a nice little drive to the goal. Hopefully tonight’s game will give him more confidence for when we play bigger opponents.”
LSU shot 52.5 percent from the field (32-of-61), including 20-of-32 in the second half. For the second time this year, LSU was in double figures at the three-point arc, hitting 10-of-19, and improved the free throw percentage to 68.0 percent (17-of-25).
McNeese State (2-5) was led by Aldryan Wardell with 16 points and nine boards, while John Ford added 13. LSU held McNeese State to 28.3 percent from the field (17-of-60).
“I believe we are still a work in progress. I would like to see us make plays in the open floor better. I thought our team played better than they did Saturday,” said Brady. “We just need to continue to try and improve in every phase. I want more consistency in our shooting. We were 10-19 from the three-point line tonight but we need to do that consistently.”
The Tigers used a couple of scoring flurries in the first 10 minutes to take control. LSU ran off eight straight points to take a 10-2 lead four minutes into the first half. A couple of minutes later, the Tigers scored 12 consecutive points to go ahead 23-6. Alex Farrer and Temple made 3-pointers during that stretch.
LSU led 38-22 at halftime and made sure the Cowboys didn’t stage a comeback by opening the second half with a 16-6 run in the first five minutes. During that span, Davis converted a three-point play and made a pair of free throws as the Tigers built a 54-28 lead.
McNeese State got no closer than 24 points the rest of the way.
LSU HEAD COACH JOHN BRADY QUOTES
Opening statement…
“I believe we are still a work in progress. I would like to see us make plays in the open floor better. I thought our team played better tonight than they did Saturday. We just need to continue to try and improve in every phase. I want more consistency in our shooting. We were 10-19 from the three point line tonight but we need to do that consistently. We tried to spread the ball around more tonight by giving some guys some more minutes off the bench. We put Alex Farrer in the game pretty early and I thought he played well defensivly. I know he can shoot the ball well, even though he was 1-4 from the field tonight.”
On Tasmin Mitchell…
“I was happy for Tasmin Mitchell to make some baskets tonight. I thought he had some shots tonight that he had Saturday and he was able to make them tonight. Hopefully this game will give him the confidence that he wants and deserves because he is one of our most consistent shooters and we need him to continue to do what he did tonight.”
On the team’s turnovers…
“We had a few careless turnovers, but that happens sometimes. Last year against McNeese we turned the ball over 27 times. That was our season high. I didn’t even recall that, but tonight we only had 16.”
On Ben Voogd…
“I thought Ben Voogd played well off the bench. I never told him not to shoot. He shoots pretty well when he gets his feet steady and he had a nice little drive to the goal tonight. Hopefully tonight’s game will give him more confidence for when we play bigger opponents.”
On putting Alex Farrer in the game early…
“I just wanted to give him a chance. My plan was to put him in the game in the first half at some point. I always ask my assistant coaches John (Treloar), Butch (Pierre) and Nikita (Johnson) about who they think we should play. I never told Alex he was going to be the first guy off the bench, which may have shocked him a little bit, but that is a good thing because I want to see how he responds with something like that. I thought he did well when he got in.”
MCNEESE STATE HEAD COACH DAVE SIMMONS
“They’re big. They’re strong. They’re physical, but there were a lot of bright spots in this game. I thought we came in and took it to them early. We didn’t get some shots to fall down. We got them in the paint and didn’t get the calls. Anytime we had a roll going, they come down and hit a couple of threes that broke our back. For the most part, I am proud of our guys. I think we have good club and we will build on this here.”
“Glen (Davis) was a force. No matter what, you have to concentrate on Glen Davis. Tasmin (Mitchell) played well. Garrett (Temple) played well. He scored 17 tonight. Some of their other guys stepped up and helped the team. That’s a really good balanced team. When you take one thing away, they find other ways to score. As these guys they have are capable of having big numbers. It showed up tonight. They have five guys in double figures. Even though we had outrebounded them early in the game, they were putting theirs back. The difference was theirs were going back in the hole and ours weren’t scoring.”