BATON ROUGE — The LSU Tigers drive to improve with every outing will be tested again Sunday when the potentially high-scoring Troy Trojans come to the Maravich Assembly Center in the 6 p.m. final game of the LSU Invitational.
The two-weekend round-robin concludes with the Tigers looking to go 4-0 on the event and Troy could go 3-1 with a win over LSU and tie the Tigers for the best record in the event. Troy won its first game of the second weekend Saturday in convincing fashion, 100-63, over Northwestern State to run its season record to 3-3 and 2-1 in the Invitational.
LSU (4-0) is coming off a 64-58 win over Centenary on Friday night, its 69th consecutive win over a Louisiana school in the Maravich Center, dating back to Dec. 8, 1988. The final score did not reflect the nature of the game as LSU used a 12-points halftime advantage to build the margin up to 24 points with under six minutes to play when Coach Trent Johnson cleared his bench to look at some substitute combinations.
Chris Johnson had his sixth career double double for the Tigers with 17 points and 14 rebounds to go with three blocks, while Tasmin Mitchell added 10 points. LSU shot 45 percent from the three-point line (5-of-11) to up its season three-point percentage to 41.1 percent (23-of-56), the best percentage the Tigers have had from the line in several years to start the season.
“Well, it was 61-37 and I made a decision to play some guys that needed to get minutes,” said LSU Coach Trent Johnson of his substitutions late in the game. “There were some guys on the team that hasn’t played at this level and we did a good job (earlier in the game) 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 assignments,” Johnson continued. “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.”
Troy is coached by Don Maestri who is in his 27th season at Troy, having taken them to the Division II national championship game in the 1990s and three times in his career his team has led the nation in scoring while five other times led the nation in three-point field goals made.
Against Northwestern State Saturday, the threes were flying as they made six in the first few minutes and finished the game making 15-of-29 in the win over the Demons.
Maestri is from New Orleans and in 10 seasons as the head coach at Holy Cross won 211 games, including a state runnerup finish in the state’s top classification. Maestri’s teams finished first or second six times in the Catholic league.
Maestri’s team had seven players in double figures against Northwestern State as Troy’s Travis Lee had 21 points in 23 minutes off the bench, hitting five treys with Richard Delk adding 17 and Regis Huddleston 16. Starting guard Michael Vogler had no points but what has to be a Maravich Center non-LSU record with 17 assists.
The Tigers are led in scoring by Mitchell and Marcus Thornton, averaging both 11.8 points per game and Bo Spencer at 11.5 points a game. Johnson is also in double figures averaging over 10 points per game through the first four contests.
LSU continues to rebound well, averaging 45.2 boards a game compared to 34.0 for the opponents, which along with taking care of the ball are the main principles of the LSU plan under Johnson.
“It has to be out identity, rebounding and taking care of the ball,” said Johnson. “That has to be our identity. A good team ? that is their identity.”
LSU has 62 assists and 56 turnovers through four games while opponents have had only 26 assisted baskets and 61 turnovers.
Following Sunday’s game, the Tigers host Cal State Fullerton Tuesday night in the Maravich Center at 7 p.m. in the final game before exams for LSU.