LSU Basketball Drills UNO For An Easy Victory

GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

LSU took a 10-point lead just three minutes into its game with the University of New Orleans on Monday night.

And the rest of the night went about like that as the Tigers dominated the Privateers for virtually the entire game for a 93-58 win at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

The Tigers (2-0), who next play Thursday against Florida International (1-1) at 7 p.m. on SEC Network+, also outrebounded UNO, 56-36, and 18-12 in offensive rebounds. LSU also committed just seven turnovers on the game.

“Our guys did a nice job of dominating the glass,” LSU coach Matt McMahon said. “We cut our turnovers in half to seven with 21 assists.”

Junior transfer forward/center Mike Nwoko, formerly of Mississippi State, scored a career-high 22 points with five rebounds to lead the Tigers. Senior forward Marquel Sutton, a transfer from Omaha, scored 15 with 4-of-8 three-point shooting and grabbed 15 rebounds.

Junior returning forward Jalen Reed scored 15 points with seven rebounds off the bench. Pablo Tamba, a senior forward from UC Davis, added 10 points and 10 rebounds. Point guard Dedan Thomas Jr., a junior transfer from UNLV, scored nine with eight assists without playing the last 10 minutes of the second half, and the blowout was well secured.

And UNO (1-2) was coming off an impressive, 78-74 win at TCU last Monday.

“We had a lot of respect for the way they beat TCU,” McMahon said.

But the Privateers could get nothing going on this night. After Sutton hit a three-pointer for a 12-2 lead at the 17:02 mark, the Tigers soon led by 14 at 27-13 on a free throw by Robert Miller III at the 10:51 mark of the first half.

UNO’s only decent run of the game got it to within 35-30 with 3:17 to play. But just like that, the Tigers put on an impressive 9-2 run to end the half with a 44-32 lead. Reed’s rebound and putback made it 42-32 with 32 seconds left, and Miller slammed one home with :01 left for the 12-point bulge.

“That was really a key stretch for us to end the half,” McMahon said. “We went into halftime with very good momentum.”

And they kept it going. Within six minutes of the second half, LSU already had a 21-point lead at 56-35 on a Reed layup. And it was over.