MVN - Most Valuable Network

LSU finally lays down the hammer

The LSU men’s basketball team finally managed a blowout victory when they down in-state rival Nicholls State 68-41.

This victory was a much-needed boost following the announcement earlier in the week of Tasmin Mitchell being down for the rest of the season with a stress fracture in the shin bone of the left ankle.

The Tigers were once again led in scoring by the dynamic Marcus Thornton who piled up 24 points, 17 of those in the second half when the Tiger’s really began to pull away.  Chris Johnson added 16 points and freshman point guard Bo Spencer continues to shine as he scored 11 points, including three buckets from beyond the arc.

This victory might have been against a very porous Nicholls team, but the Tiger’s can build upon a defensive performance in which they held Nicholls to 30 percent shooting, including an absymal 20 percent from the three-point line.

“Coach kept putting us through defensive slides, defensive drills, all of that and we finally stepped it up and came out and played good and hard and with intensity,” Bo Spencer said.

One big blow to the Tiger’s already thin frontcourt depth was when Anthony Randolph went out at the 15 minute mark in foul trouble, but Randolph still came back to score six points, record seven rebounds and three blocked shots in only 21 minutes of play.  But according to LSU coach John Brady, the return of Randolph in the second half gave the Tiger’s the spark it needed to pull away.

“I thought Anthony Randolph changed the game with his energy level in the second half. He showed great hustle and had some blocked shots,” he said, “I thought his energy level and how he played the second half changed the game for us.”

The news was not all good for the Tigers as they continuosly shot themselves in the foot in commiting 21 turnovers.  Nicholls continuosly double-teamed the ball screens and the Tigers were careless with the ball.  This major flaw will have to be addressed before the Tiger’s begin SEC play.

The Tigers attempt to extend their 64 game winning streak against in-state competion against Southern at home on Friday.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 29th, 2007 at 4:14 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.