The first 20 minutes was far from a pretty half of basketball for LSU coach Johnny Jones’ club. But when you start three freshmen, that’s certainly to be expected.
However, those three freshmen are from far an average bunch. The second half proved why the largest season-opening crowd since Shaquille O’Neal debut in the PMAC came to see them play.
Freshman forward Ben Simmons and freshman guard Antonio Blakeney each had double-doubles, while freshman guard Brandon Sampson was 4-for-6 from three-point territory as the No. 21 Tigers (1-0) surged to huge second-half lead en route to 80-71 victory against McNeese State.
After months of preseason hype, including a trip to Australia in August and an NBA scouting combine last month, the trio of rookies finally got a taste of meaningful college basketball. Naturally, Simmons and company wanted to treat 11,679 in attendance to something special.
“They are ready to see a good show,” Simmons, who 11 points, 13 rebounds and five assists, said. “I’m glad that Antonio and Brandon are here because none of this would happen without them. I think we are getting better every day on the floor. We have a long season ahead of us, and we are going to get better every day.”
It took nearly 15 minutes of playing time for the rest of the Tigers to get in sync offensively, but Simmons was effective from the jump. The Associated Press preseason All-American showed his ability to fill up a stat sheet in 19 minutes in the first half, totaling nine points on 4-of-5 shooting to match 10 rebounds and four assists.
As a whole, though, the Tigers were just 40 percent from the field and 7-of-13 from the free throw line heading into the halftime. Capped off by a wide-open dunk by Simmons just before the buzzer, the Tigers went on a 7-0 run at the end of the first half, pushing LSU’s lead to 12 points.
“I told our guys prior to the game that McNeese would come out and be a well-coached basketball team,” Jones said. ‘They play extremely hard, and we saw that early on in the game. They did a great job in executing and did a great job in defending. We went on a great little run in the stretch right there prior to the half.”
Riding the momentum of the late-first period spark, LSU exploded to start the second half, extending the run to 27-0 after Sampson’s triple from the wing with 13:51 left. The trey from Sampson, which was third of four three-pointers in the run, gave the Tigers a 34-point lead, the largest of the game.
Despite already recording a double-double with more than 14 minutes left, Simmons sat for an extended period in the second half, suffering from cramps. In that time on the bench, Blakeney showed his knack for scoring by pouring in a game-high 22 points to match 10 rebounds.
Despite a 3-for-10 clip in the first-half, Blakeney said Jones confidence in him paid off in the next period.
“It definitely helps to go through that because you know your coaches believe in you even if you play badly for a little bit,” Blakeney said. “You may start off shooting badly. He believes you make those shots and lets you keep shooting.”
For Sampson, who finished with 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting, a shaky start wasn’t a product of nerves.
“I just think we had to get through the game a couple of times,” Sampson said. “Shots weren’t falling in the first couple of minutes, so we had to get through the motions. Get it in the post and kick it out to get some shots.”
The Tigers dealt with foul trouble from their frontcourt throughout the game, including Aaron Epps, who fouled out in only seven minutes of play. But Jones’ biggest concern was allowing McNeese to cut a massive lead to 11 points at the end of the contest, during which the coach emptied his available bench.
Still, the fourth-year coach found positives on a night when his three stud freshmen received their first collegiate experience.
“All in all, I’m happy, excited about the win. We did grow a little bit. we got better from the other night, and we are going to have to do the same thing and transition from this game to the game on Monday.”