BATON ROUGE — The LSU Tigers showed no ill effects of 11 days off worrying about final exams with a convincing 87-41 over Grambling State Saturday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The win made LSU 7-0 on the season going into Wednesday’s game with Nicholls State and marked the 70th straight win over a Louisiana school in the Maravich Center dating back to Dec. 8, 1988. Grambling falls to 2-6.
Marcus Thornton led LSU in scoring for the third straight game with 18 points and five assists, while Terry Martin off the bench was almost perfect shooting, hitting six-of-seven shots, including all four three-point attempts as he finished with 16 points in 17 minutes. Tasmin Mitchell hit for 12 points in 19 minutes.
Ibrahim Kpaka led Grambling with 14 points and Jarred Riley had 10.
No LSU player other than Chris Johnson played more than 20 minutes in the contest while Johnson played 22 minutes as the game was decided by an aggressive start by LSU in the first five minutes.
The Tigers did their best to put the mark on the win as LSU raced to a 9-0 lead as Mitchell opened the scoring with a deuce, followed by a three from Thornton. Mitchell then got a steal and a stuff to make it 7-0 at the 18:14 mark.
Following a possession in which Grambling had four shots and three offensive rebounds but failed to score, Thornton got another bucket to make it 9-0, forcing Grambling State into its first of two 30-second timeouts before the first media timeout.
Grambling finally got on the board with a three-pointer from Kpaka to make it 9-3, but then LSU finished off the first segment with a 7-0 run to make it 16-3 at the first media break with 14:42 left in the half.
Thornton hit his first three treys, the third coming with 13:10 to go in the half to make it 22-3. Grambling scored on its next possession to stop a 13-0 run.
The Tigers continued to pound the lead upward to make it 37-11 at the 5:51 mark and would hold the visiting Tigers to 15 first-half points in building a 47-15 advantage.
For the game, LSU shot 63.6 percent from the floor, hitting 35-of-55 shots with 24 assists and just 11 turnovers. LSU also hit 13-of-22 treys for 59.1 percent. The Tigers did not get to the line but four times and made all four shots. LSU did not hurt its No. 2 national ranking in field goal percentage defense, as Grambling hit just 27.1 percent from the floor (13-of-48) and 2-of-12 from the arc. Grambling got to the line 20 more times than LSU, 24, but made just 13.
LSU got an amazing total of 33 points off the 14 Grambling State turnovers with the LSU bench scoring 42 of the Tigers’ 87 points. LSU’s biggest lead was the final margin.
“I don’t care who you play, when you play or where you play, to hold a Division I basketball team to 15 points at the half is pretty good,” said LSU Coach Trent Johnson. “Obviously, these guys (LSU) are playing with a level of intensity that you have to respect. It is nice to keep sustaining it. I told them that I had a concern, three days off is new territory for me with a basketball team, but they did a good job. Again, when I say good job, it is all based off of us, our ability to execute, our ability to compete at a high level.”
LSU HEAD COACH TRENT JOHNSON QUOTES
Opening statement …
“I don’t care who you play, when you play or where you play, to hold a Division I basketball team to 15 points at the half is pretty good. Obviously, these guys are playing with a level of intensity that you have to respect. It is nice to keep sustaining it. I told them that I had a concern, three days off is new territory for me with a basketball team, but they did a good job. Again, when I say good job, it is all based off of us, our ability to execute, our ability to compete at a high level. Storm Warren, I made a decision not to play in the second half because he has a groin injury. He feels good, but I just didn’t want to take a chance on it, so that is the reason we didn’t play him.”
On Delwan Graham …
“We are moving him around. He plays a three and plays a four. He has a strength advantage and size advantage against some of the kids he is playing in the SWAC, so we are able to put him at the four, but he gives you energy and competes really hard. His skill level is behind on the perimeter so as much we can put him in the space around the basket he has a chance to help us and be successful.”
On the offensive rhythm …
“Uncontested shots, but still to shoot them in the hole in rhythm, you have to be pleased. This group has shown me in seven games that we are going to play to our level and that is what this is about to me, If things don’t go well for us, it is going to be because the other team, I believe, is better on that given day or night. Right now, we are really competing at a high level.”
On if he was surprised with the intensity in which the team came out after time off …
“Again, surprise is not a word that comes up for me when you know you are around of group of guys and they want to be good and they try. This is the basketball team that I said about a month ago that we played like we practiced. We were sluggish the first day and a half, but they got into a rhythm in here yesterday and I think they understand, I really think understand. I would be surprised if we came out in two days prior to this game and were sluggish and not executing and they weren’t doing what we asked, but they don’t do that. Nothing surprises me with this group, but I’ll be the first to tell you that if we have really bad practices, we are probably going to play bad. They are enjoying themselves, and it’s working right now, seven games into the games that we have.”
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
On the team’s intensity level …
“We came out with the same intensity and tried not to get behind. We tried to come out and be aggressive on defense and get our business in on the offensive end.”
On coming out with a high energy …
“We were joking and loose, but we didn’t want to get lax. When we get on the court, it was all about business. The whole team came out there with the same intensity and tried to win the game.”
On how things came together after eleven days off …
“Coach (Johnson) really put it on us at practice. We really had a few hard practice and we stayed a long time. We tried not to live up to the expectations of us for having so long off. We were determined not to come out sluggish.”
On the game …
“I thought we came out and played aggressively. We picked up from last game and were very aggressive on defense and let the game come to us.”
On his shots falling …
“I’ve been waiting on a nice game. I just stayed after practice shooting and just waited on my shot, not trying to rush anything and not thinking about offense, just going out and playing basketball. Coach (Johnson) told me to just relax and just concentrate on defense and other aspects and it would come to me. It made things a lot easier.”
On staying focused for the game …
“Tasmin and I talked before the game. We are a team that likes to joke and have fun, but when we get on the court, it’s all business. We put it in both our heads that we had to get a good start to win this game and everybody contributed.”
GRAMBLING STATE GEAD COACH RICK DUCKETT
Opening Statement …
“LSU is better at every position. You look at their starting five and they are excellent. They play in a great conference. When you play a team with that much fire power you try to take away a few of the things you think will hurt you the most, but they (LSU) were making shots against our zone and against our man so it made for a long game for us.”
On Grambling State’s game plan coming into the game …
“We knew the size was going to be a factor so we wanted to make sure we took (Chris) Johnson and (Tasmin) Mitchell out and make it hard for them to score. Anytime you have (Marcus) Thornton on the perimeter and (Garrett) Temple and (Bo) Spencer making shots, they stretch you. If you go down there and double they throw out, they get good looks and once they get going it’s hard to stop them.