Bring On The SEC? LSU Rolls By SMU For 1st Quad 1 Win Of The Season

By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

NEW ORLEANS – LSU appears ready for Southeastern Conference play three weeks early.

The Tigers blitzed SMU, which has a No. 31 NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool) ranking and received votes in the recent Associated Press poll, and LSU won going away, 89-77, in front of about 4,000 at the Smoothie King Center here Saturday night.

The neutral site win against a team with a top 50 NET qualifies for a Quad 1 victory, which is significant for NCAA Tournament bids.

LSU (9-1) played its best game of the season against an Atlantic Coast Conference team that lost for just the second time this season. SMU (9-2) was 24-11 last season with a 13-7 mark in its first year in the ACC.

And the Tigers bounced back with authority from a disappointing 82-58 loss at No. 19 Texas Tech in its only other Quad 1 opportunity so far last Sunday by dominating the Mustangs and neutralizing their vaunted guard play.

“This was an important step for us,” LSU coach Matt McMahon said. “The urgency and edge we played with tonight was impressive. Really proud. We have really good players, and they weren’t happy with our performance against Texas Tech.”

Forward Marquel Sutton could rarely be stopped by SMU as he scored 23 points with 12 rebounds.

And guard Max Mackinnon was spectacular, scoring 22 points on 6-of-7 shooting from three-point range and 8 of 9 overall from the field.

“It’s hard to do that in warm-ups, much less in a college basketball game,” SMU coach Andy Enfield said of Mackinnon. “We just didn’t defend at a level necessary to beat them. We let their guys do what they do. Max Mackinnon is a great shooter.”

Point guard Dedan Thomas Jr. ran the show as usual for the Tigers, scoring 16 points with 12 assists and just two turnovers. And forward Pablo Tamba added 14 points with 10 rebounds.

“It feels great to get a Quad 1 win,” Thomas said. “We put in a lot of work, especially after that loss. We felt like that was not us. And coach was really hard on us.”

Mackinnon was hard on himself after the loss to Texas Tech as his game was completely opposite compared to this one. He was 0 for 9 from the field and 0 for 5 from beyond the arc. And he wasn’t the only one cold. LSU shot 25 percent from the field in that game (21 of 63) and 14 percent from three-point range (4 of 24).

“There was a lot of tough love from the coaches,” Mackinnon said. “My first one went down tonight, and I was good.”

Playing in an NBA arena didn’t hurt either.

“That’s the stuff you dream about as a little kid,” Mackinnon said. “Growing up in Australia, you dream about playing in the NBA. I never thought it would happen that I’d play in an NBA arena.”

And then he misses one shot out of nine.

“I always look for Max,” Thomas said. “Dude puts up too much work for me not to look for him.”

LSU led by as many as 12 in the first half at 39-27 with 6:48 to go before SMU stormed back to cut it it to 47-44 at the break.

The Tigers quickly went up by double digits again at 61-50 on a fast break layup by Tamba off a Thomas assist with 15:32 left. SMU called timeout, which brought on chants of “LSU … LSU … LSU.”

LSU kept surging and soon took its biggest lead by 17 at 74-57 with 10:41 to play on a layup by Sutton. SMU never recovered. Guards Boopie Miller, Jaron Pierre Jr. and center Jaden Toombs each scored 16 for the Mustangs.

The Tigers have three games against low ranked NET teams before opening SEC play on Jan. 3 at Texas A&M (7-3).

“Just a great win,” McMahon said. “And a great response. We had a spirited week of practice after the way we played at Texas Tech. The simple answer was our offense didn’t stink.”