BATON ROUGE, La. – Three LSU Tigers recorded double-doubles as the LSU men’s basketball team cruised past Texas Southern, 92-51, on Friday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
LSU (2-0) extended its non-conference home winning streak to 22 games and improved to 3-0 all-time against Texas Southern (0-2).
The Tigers will wrap up their season-opening three-game home stand with a 7 p.m. CT contest against Louisiana Tech on Monday, Nov. 9, at the Maravich Center.
Saliou Niang recorded his second consecutive double-double, finishing with 15 points and 11 rebounds while adding three steals. Michael Ruzic posted a double-double of his own with 12 points and 11 rebounds off the bench, shooting 6-of-7 from the floor and recording two blocks. Donovan Dent rounded out LSU’s double-double performers with 10 points and 10 assists. He also made an impact defensively, recording a career-high four blocks and added three steals. Through his first two games in an LSU uniform, Dent has dished out 20 assists without committing a turnover.
For the second consecutive game, six Tigers finished in double figures. Abdi Bashir Jr. matched Niang for the team lead with 15 points, knocking down four 3-pointers. Mo Dioubate added 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting and seven rebounds, while Divine Ugochukwu finished with 10 points on a perfect 5-of-5 shooting performance, along with five rebounds and a block.
LSU shot 57.1 percent from the floor, connecting on 36-of-63 attempts, but struggled from beyond the arc (5-of-22) and the free-throw line (15-of-25, 60 percent).
Despite its shooting struggles in those areas, LSU controlled the game in the paint, outscoring Texas Southern 62-12, and held a 23-9 advantage in fast-break points. The Tigers also forced 14 turnovers, recording 10 steals that led to 18 points.
Texas Southern shot just 23.7 percent from the field (14-of-59) and connected on seven 3-pointers. Jason Kimbrough Jr. led TSU with 16 points, knocking down four of his five field goals from beyond the arc.
LSU overcame a slow start by putting together a 20-4 run, including 13 unanswered points, to build a double-digit advantage at 27-15. Dent highlighted the stretch with consecutive fast-break layups off steals. After LSU went scoreless for nearly three minutes, Texas Southern capitalized, cutting the deficit to 27-21. The Fighting Tigers responded by scoring 16 of the next 18 points to push their lead to 20 at 43-23 with 1:55 remaining in the half. LSU carried a 47-28 advantage into the break.
The Fighting Tigers continued to pull away after halftime, using a 15-1 run to extend their lead to 80-43 with 5:03 remaining. LSU closed the contest on a 7-0 run, highlighted by a pair of 3-pointers from Bashir Jr., to secure the final score.
LSU vs Texas Southern
November 6, 2026
Post-game Quotes
LSU Head Coach Will Wade
OPENING STATEMENT
“Good win. We did what we needed to do to win but certainly need to play cleaner than we did tonight. We have a quick turnaround for Monday with Louisiana Tech; that'll be the best of these three teams we've played, so we're going to need to play cleaner than we did.”
On his concerns about struggling to make threes…
"I mean, we have some good shooters. We just haven't made them. I have to go back and look at our shot quality in the second half, but our first half shot quality was really good; we took one really poor three, and all the rest of them were really good shots. So, we got to step up and knock them down. I think we have great shooters; we just haven't made them. You saw what Skyy (Clark) did at Florida State. Abdi (Bashir) is one of the premier shooters in the country. (Michael) Ruzic can shoot it, and we've got some guys who can make shots. We don't need Saliou (Niang) and Ruzic to make five threes a game, but one a game would be nice. Three from Abdi and another two from Skyy and one from Donny (Donovan Dent), you know you build it up and make seven threes a game. It's just not sustainable how we're playing. The free throw line kills us too. We could never get going in the first half because when you get an offensive rebound, and you get fouled and miss two free throws it is like a turnover. We did that multiple times, so it makes it tough sledding."
On Dent and Ruzic's connection…
“They're both great players. Both had double-doubles tonight, I believe. Donny had 10 assists; I believe he has 20 assists and zero turnovers in these two games, so he's been awesome. Ruzic's 12 and 11. He's really solid and works hard and does what he's supposed to do. He's a good player.”
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Micheal Ruzic
On how he's taken more of an advantage of the faster pace of college basketball . . .
“I mean I’ve always been a big man who likes to run the floor even back in Europe that was my biggest strength compared to other centers back there. So, coming here I still needed time to adjust but I was able to adjust pretty quicky and definitely playing with these guys, throwing those great lobs and finding me around the rim when I’m open, it’s been great so far. I like it here. I like basketball here and look forward to what the season has to offer.”
On what he thinks the biggest area of improvement is for his team to go into next week . . .
“We’ve got to be more physical, more aggressive. I think our pace today was a little bit slower than against (LSU) New Orleans, so we’ve got to pick that back up. Better executions on offense, I feel like we were a little bit sloppy today with the turnovers, and yeah, just dominate the glass as well. That’s a big part.”
Donovan Dent
On what 64% of assisted field goals say about the team’s game, connection . . .
“I think the connection is all credit to the coaching staff. We’re here a good majority of the day and just spend time with one another and getting to know each other more and more off the court. I think we actually shoot better with more assisted threes. We missed a lot of threes … but I think those will just start falling. So, I think we’ll just keep flowing and flowing more and more into it."
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Texas Southern Head Coach Corey Lowery
General thoughts on the team's performance…
“They gave everything they had. We’re down a lot of bodies. We have three guys 6-foot-9 or above that are out hurt. We just have to wait for them to get cleared, but the nine guys that we have gave everything they got.”
What does Jason Kimbrough bring to the team…
“He’s a point guard that can make shots, and he’s learning how to make other guys around him better. Once he gets that, I think it will open up a lot more for him as well. That’s what I’m trying to preach to him.”
Anticipation for home opener…
“You open up with Grand Canyon and LSU, those are probably some of the hardest openers to start. Hopefully our home opener will have a good showing, and we can get our first win.”