With 141 career games, no one on LSU’s roster has played more SEC basketball than Jordan Wright.

Despite his wealth of experience, though, Wright was never the top scoring option in his previous four years at Vanderbilt. He’s been a calm veteran presence, a glue guy, a defensive anchor, but never a star.

He looked the part on Wednesday, dispelling any questions about his scoring ability, notching 27 points to lift LSU to a win over a formidable Ole Miss team.

The match was tight, with LSU holding a 35-33 lead at halftime, until Wright opened the second frame with a personal 6-0 run off a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer and a tough and-one layup.

From that point on, the Tigers kept Ole Miss at arm’s length, riding the energy of the Pete Maravich Assembly Center crowd to a dominant second half.

Sixteen of Wright’s points came in the second half, and he was relentless on both ends, setting the tone for the rest of the team.

“This is definitely what I came back to do, what I envisioned,” said Wright, who played in high school for Dunham in Baton Rouge. “Win these types of games against a top-25 opponent at home. It was incredible.”

In addition to his scoring efforts, Wright had five assists, six rebounds and seven steals.

Jalen Cook added 16 points and Tyrell Ward also had 11 points with three made 3-pointers.

As it has all season, LSU’s active defense made life difficult for the Rebels. The Tigers pounced in passing lanes to intercept long, cross-court passes and defended Ole Miss’ ball handlers with disruptive physicality.

That’s a recipe that has caused the Tigers to lead the SEC in steals per game, and they came up with 10 steals against Ole Miss, which led to an impactful 10 points off turnovers.

“Just reading the game,” Wright said of how the team came up with steals. “Just playing, laying back. Kind of take it back to my football background, playing safety back there. Just reading the play, being one step ahead, knowing their tendencies.”

LSU’s perimeter defense was also excellent at limiting Ole Miss’ success from three-point range, something the team has made recent strides in after struggling to open the season.

Ole Miss entered the game as the No. 6 team in the nation in terms of three-point percentage. Though the Rebels don’t take many 3-point shots as a team, guards Matthew Murrell and Jaylen Murray are aggressive sharpshooters. Both rank in the SEC’s top seven in 3-pointers made per game.

After Murray splashed two long-distance shots in the game’s first three minutes, LSU held Ole Miss to only four more 3-pointers for the rest of the contest.

The only drawback of LSU’s aggressive defense was that the Tigers were whistled for many fouls. Ole Miss entered the bonus with 13 minutes to go in the second half, and ended up shooting 21 free throws in the frame, which allowed them to stick around to an extent.

Scoring was difficult for LSU in the first half, as the Tigers coughed up nine turnovers and were clearly affected by Ole Miss’ all-around length.

There aren’t many more fearsome rim-protecting duos than Ole Miss’ two centers, Moussa Cisse and Jamarion Sharp. Cisse was the 2022 Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year for Oklahoma State, and Sharp currently is No. 5 in the nation in blocks.

Cisse grabbed the start for Ole Miss, and LSU got no relief when he checked out to make way for Sharp. Both made it difficult for LSU to finish at the rim, and their presence on the back end allowed the Rebel defenders to play aggressively.

In the second half, though, LSU blended aggressiveness with tact to get to the rim and evade Ole Miss’ rim protectors, with Wright and Cook at the head of that effort. In the second half, LSU had 22 points in the paint compared to 12 in the first.

Ole Miss came into the game with a record of 15-1, with only one loss to Tennessee, the top-ranked team in the SEC. However, LSU was a 4.5-point betting favorite, and the Tigers backed that up with a win.

The win was important for LSU, coming off a game where they showed heart but ultimately weren’t good enough and made too many mistakes to take down Auburn, one of the conference’s top teams.

“Your team can go one of two ways at that point, and, really, you find out about your character and what you’re about,” McMahon said about LSU facing a 28-point deficit against Auburn, which they cut to eight. “We were able to build on that.”

Now, LSU will try to further build on the identity it has established when it hosts Texas A&M on Saturday at 3 p.m.