One man carried LSU in the first half of its National Invitation Tournament opener at San Francisco.
When his teammates followed suit in the second, it spelled doom for the No. 4 seed Dons.
USF had no answer for LSU freshman forward Jarell Martin on either end of the floor in the first half and the Tigers (20-13) awoke from their outside shooting doldrums in the second half to down the Dons, 71-63, in San Francisco.
With the victory, the Tigers move on to the second round and will travel to Dallas for a Monday night showdown with No. 1 seed Southern Methodist University, led by Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown.
Martin, who told reporters on Monday he planned to return to LSU for his sophomore season, cruised to perhaps his most complete half as a Tiger, notching 14 points and grabbing six rebounds in a first half where he shouldered the load for an inefficient LSU offense.
The Tigers trailed only once in the game, a 2-0 deficit after USF’s Kruize Pinkins knocked down a corner jumper to open the game.
Martin responded with a thunderous putback dunk and a 3-pointer to give LSU the lead for good.
The Dons clawed to within one at the 8:53 mark, but again it was Martin who ripped off another 5-0 run, followed by four straight from seldom-used sophomore guard Shane Hammink to stretch the Tiger lead back to eight at 20-12.
After USF forward Cole Dickerson tipped in a Dons miss to cut the Tiger lead to two, Martin took a feed from Tiger junior guard Anthony Hickey for a slam in transition.
Pinkins added a dunk with 17 seconds left, but it was Hickey’s acrobatic drive through the lane to beat the buzzer that ended the half and sent LSU to the locker room with a 33-30 lead.
LSU found its stroke from behind the 3-point line to open the second half, led by senior forward Shavon Coleman who buried two crucial 3-pointers to finally give the Tigers separation and a 49-40 lead with 13:11 to go.
When the Dons cut it to seven after two free throws from Matt Glover, the Tigers delivered the knockout blow — a 9-0 run punctuated by back-to-back 3-pointers from Hickey and freshman guard Tim Quarterman, putting the Tiger lead at 61-45.
Again the Dons scrapped back, cutting the lead in half to 68-62 in the final three minutes, capped off by Mark Tollefsen’s flush off an alley-oop.
But it was O’Bryant who registered a massive block on the defensive end on the ensuing Dons possession, leading to Coleman’s two free throws that put the Tiger lead back at 70-62 and clinched the first postseason victory for the LSU basketball program since a 2009 win against Butler in the NCAA tournament.