The fatigue from LSU’s game against Texas A&M showed Monday night against McNeese State.The Tigers squeaked out a 62-59 win against the Cowboys, two days after a physical 72-61 loss to the Aggies.Four players played at least 30 minutes against Texas A&M. Four played at least 28 minutes against McNeese State.”Sometimes you have hangovers like that,” said senior guard Garrett Temple. “Unfortunately that’s what happened tonight. Fortunately we did get the win.”After LSU senior guard Marcus Thornton hit one of his three free throws to put LSU up 61-59, Cowboys sophomore guard C.J. Collins drove into the lane in an attempt to tie the game.But senior center Chris Johnson came up with a game-saving block that helped the Tigers win.McNeese State had a chance to pull within 1 point after a foul by Thornton. But Cowboys junior guard Diego Kapelan couldn’t convert the shots, and LSU escaped with a win.”We got a little lackadaisical between that 10-minute to five-minute stretch in the second half,” Temple said. “But we put out the win.”Things started ugly for LSU, as McNeese State led, 28-21, at halftime.The Tigers shot 8-for-28 from the field and 3-for-10 from behind the arc in the first half. The 21 points in the first 20 minutes marked a season low.The Cowboys only shot 9-for-22 in the first half but made three of four 3-point shots and seven of nine free throws.”They shot the ball very well from the 3-point line,” Temple said. “Whenever you can shoot the ball well from three, you have a chance.”LSU only led once in the first half at 5-4 after a little more than two minutes of play. Thornton, LSU’s leading scorer, made only two of eight shots in the first half.Johnson picked up two fouls a little more than five minutes into the game, prompting head coach Trent Johnson to put him on the bench for the rest of the half.Junior forward Tasmin Mitchell also collected two quick fouls and didn’t play the last 9:45 of the half.”When Tasmin goes out with two and CJ has two, that disrupts a lot of what we do offensively,” Trent Johnson said.LSU came out quickly in the second half behind a 16-0 run, powered by Chris Johnson’s return from the bench.Johnson had five of the 16 points in a two-minute stretch, including a slam dunk to give LSU a lead it would not relinquish.”[Coach Johnson] basically told us we needed to play with a little more intensity,” Temple said. “He told us we were playing sluggish.”The Tigers and Cowboys went back and forth after a double foul was called on Tiger senior forward Quintin Thornton and Cowboys senior forward John Pichon. The two sides traded baskets for about three minutes before LSU pushed its lead to 10 points with 3:53 left to play.Things got interesting when Kapelan hit a 3-pointer with 34.2 seconds left to cut LSU’s lead to two at 59-57.Kapelan hit five 3-pointers in the game for 15 total points.”Going into the game, we knew he was a great shooter,” Marcus Thornton said. “The last couple series we just tried to keep somebody in his face.”McNeese State sophomore guard Stephan Martin hit two free throws with 18 seconds left to cut LSU’s lead to one point.The Marcus Thornton free throw and Chris Johnson block followed suit.”Marcus bailed me out, and Chris bailed me out by blocking his shot,” Trent Johnson said.MARTIN OUT FOR UNIDENTIFIED REASONLSU senior guard Terry Martin didn’t dress out for the McNeese State contest.Trent Johnson was mum on the situation, not pointing out specifically why Martin didn’t dress out but implied Martin had complained about playing time.”I don’t expect guys to be not happy about playing. I expect them to understand why they don’t play the minutes they want to play. I expect them to understand their role,” Johnson said. “Terry needs to understand it, and he needs to identify his role with this team and accept it and move forward.”The players didn’t have much to say either.”I’d rather not discuss that,” Mitchell said.LSU—WSU ON ESPN2LSU’s next contest comes against Washington State at 1 p.m. on Saturday at the PMAC.The game will be televised on ESPN2, and students must reserve a ticket in order to attend.Trent Johnson expects another tough battle against the Cougars.”You want to see physical? Come out here on the 27th,” he said. “That’s physical.”