BATON ROUGE — LSU center Chris Johnson hit for 17 points, 14 rebounds and three blocks to lead the Tigers to a 64-58 LSU Invitational win over the Centenary Gents Friday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The Tigers are 4-0 on the year and have now won 69 straight games against Louisiana schools at the Maravich Center and the win means the streak, which started on Dec. 8, 1988, will stretch over 20 full years as LSU will not play another Louisiana school until Dec. 13 against Grambling State.
The Tigers are 3-0 with one game remaining in the LSU Invitational, Sunday night at 6 p.m. against Troy. Troy will play its first game of the second weekend of the two-weekend event Saturday at 4:30 p.m. against Northwestern State, a winner earlier in the day against Alcorn State to run its record to 2-1 in the five-team event. Troy is 1-1 and Centenary, 1-5 on the year, falls to 1-2 in the Invitational, going into a 7 p.m. game Saturday at the PMAC against Alcorn State.
Besides Johnson, the only other player in double figures was Tasmin Mitchell with 10 points. Centenary was led by the 17 points of Nick Stallings with Chase Adams adding 16 and David Perez 12.
The Tigers for the third straight game moved out quickly on the Invitational opponent, scoring six points in the first two minutes on free throws by Mitchell, a dunk by Johnson and a layup by Mitchell. Centenary got on the board with a bucket by Jerrald Bonham at the 17:27 mark.
LSU ran off five points to take the margin to nine at 11-4 but the Gents continued to play aggressively and had the LSU lead at just 19-13 just under the 10 minute mark as LSU did not remain sharp as the half progressed.
Delwan Graham got a layup underneath to make it 21-13 and then Farrer hit a baseline jumper as the clock ticked under eight minutes to push the lead to 10, 23-13. Farrer off a steal flipped an off-balance lay in in to increase the margin to 25-13 with 7:05 to play. The latest run came with the second five of Terry Martin, Chris Bass, Alex Farrer, Storm Warren and Delwan Graham in the game.
Quintin Thornton did not dress after hurting his shoulder Thursday in practice.
The starting five returned with still the 25-13 lead, but Centenary’s Adams hit a three to cut it to 25-16. Garrett Temple hit a trey with 1:38 to go in the half to make LSU’s lead, 30-18. At the half, LSU led 34-22, as Bo Spencer went one-on-one in the final 15 seconds for a layup.
In the second half, LSU held a 12-15 point advantage through most of the first seven minutes before a 14-3 run pushed the margin out to 24 at 61-37 with 5:44 to go.
Centenary would outscore LSU, 21-3, over the remainder of the game with the starters out of the contest.
“Well it was 61-37 and I made a decision to play some guys that needed to get minutes,” said LSU Coach Trent Johnson. “There were some guys on the team that hadn’t played at this level and we did a good job with some veterans. The game was never in jeopardy so I thought we should let them play. I asked a couple of them if they were ready to play, and sometimes kids have a tendency to be selfish and worry about ?me’ and ?I’ as opposed to winning and knowing their assignment. For the most part, some kids that said they were ready to go in there and play weren’t ready to play. So now you have a video tape and something to correct them and move forward. It was 61-37 and I thought for the most part there was a group in there that was playing well, but it’s going to be a long year and we are going to need some more young players to improve at a faster rate than what they are doing right now.”
After Sunday’s 6 p.m. game with Troy, LSU is right back in action with the final game before the exam break as they will take on Cal State Fullerton Tuesday night at 7 p.m. Tickets for both games are available online at LSUsports.net starting at just $5.
LSU HEAD COACH TRENT JOHNSON QUOTES
On the holiday crowd …
“The crowd was good.”
On winning despite giving up points at the end …
“Well it was 61-37 and I made a decision to play some guys that needed to get minutes. There were some guys on the team that hadn’t played at this level and we did a good job with some veterans. The game was never in jeopardy so I thought we should let them play.”
On rotating players in and out of the game …
“I asked a couple of them if they were ready to play, and sometimes kids have a tendency to be selfish and worry about ?me’ and ?I’ as opposed to winning and knowing their assignment. For the most part, some kids that said they were ready to go in there and play weren’t ready to play. So now you have a video tape and something to correct them and move forward. It was 61-37 and I thought for the most part there was a group in there that was playing well, but it’s going to be a long year and we are going to need some more young players to improve at a faster rate than what they are doing right now.”
On Garrett Temple‘s foul trouble …
“Garrett wasn’t in foul trouble. I took him out with three and he is a guy that is going to have to play with three and four. There is a lot of trust involved there. He could have finished the game without fouling out.”
On the team avoiding foul trouble …
“I don’t worry about that. We are bigger, stronger and quicker than the teams we have played so far. Centenary did a very good job of scrapping and keeping themselves in the game and going up against our group.”
On if rebounding and taking care of the ball are a part of LSU’s team identity …
“It has to be our identity, rebounding and taking care of the ball. That has to be our identity. A good team – that is their identity.”
CENTENARY HEAD COACH GREG GARY
On Centenary’s 21-3 run to end the game …
“Our guys just didn’t quit. Coming off of that Wichita State trip our guys made a commitment to each other and really got after it and responded today. We fought and fought and that’s all we can ask for. LSU is a very talented team and Coach Johnson…they’re very, very good. We had some shots at the end to close it, but I’m just happy for our guys. We got better offensively, even though we didn’t shoot the ball well. From an execution standpoint and that’s all coaches kind of look at and competing-wise we got better tonight.”
On holding LSU to only 64 points …
“We’re undersized and out-manned quite a bit. Obviously we have some injuries, but strength-wise they (LSU) are bigger and stronger, but we played pretty smart; we tried to make them hit some shots from the perimeter. We did give up some three’s, but (Bo) Spencer is a heck of a shooter and we’ve got to get to him a little bit quicker. We made them shoot that foul-line jump shot, which I didn’t think they were consistently going to do. We need help inside; it’s hard for us to play anybody one-on-one.”
NORTHWESTERN STATE WINS 500TH FOR MCCONATHY IN LSU INVITATIONAL
BATON ROUGE — Northwestern State University head coach Mike McConathy won his 500th game as a college head coach Friday night as the Demons built a big first-half lead and then held on for a 77-65 win over Alcorn State in the first game of Day 4 of the LSU Invitational at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
McConathy is in his 10th year as the head coach at Northwestern State after 16 years as the head coach of Bossier Parish Community College.
The Demons are 2-1 in the tournament and 3-2 overall while Alcorn State falls to 0-3 in the event and 0-5 overall. The Demons play Troy at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday to conclude their play while Alcorn and Centenary meet in the 7 p.m. nightcap on Saturday. LSU and Centenary were to meet in Friday’s second game.
Damon Jones off the bench led the Demons with 21 points in 18 minutes, while Devin While and William Mosley had 15 points each. White had 12 rebounds. Alcorn was led by Troy Jackson with 28 points and seven steals in 35 minutes while Jarvis Williams scored 13.
The Demons rolled to a 42-23 halftime advantage, holding Alcorn to 24.1 percent from the field, but the Demons struggled to finish, allowing Alcorn to close the margin in the final few minutes.