The LSU men’s basketball team kicked off regular season play Monday defeating Southeastern Louisiana, 72-62, at the PMAC. Led by freshman forward Anthony Randolph and junior college transfer guard Marcus Thornton, the Tigers outscored the Lions, 42-32, in the second half to secure the victory and extend their home winning streak against Louisiana schools to 63 games. Randolph and Thornton combined to score 46 of the Tigers 72 points. Randolph added 13 rebounds, six blocked shots and four steals. Randolph admitted that in his first college game, he wasn’t as relaxed as his stat line might indicate. “I almost threw up before we came out,” Randolph said. “I was so nervous, but after a while, it went away.” Marcus Thornton led the team in scoring with 27 points. “[LSU coach John Brady] just said [to] let the game come to me,” Thornton said. “That’s what I tried to do. I just try to help my team win.” Despite Thornton’s 12 first-half points, Southeastern kept the game close all the way up to halftime. The Tigers jumped out to their biggest lead of the first half on a three-point play by Dameon Mason that put LSU up 21-9 with 10:16 remaining in the period. Southeastern closed the gap though with it’s own 21-9 run to finish the half with the score knotted up at 30-30. Offensive rebounding was a strong point for Southeastern in the first period. They collected 11 offensive rebounds to the Tigers’ zero and outrebounded LSU, 26-15. Junior Tasmin Mitchell played sparingly in first half as he was forced to the bench at the 14:41 mark with two fouls. Mitchell finished the game with six points and two rebounds. “For Tasmin to play 24 minutes and have two rebounds is not what we need out of him,”John Brady said. Brady said a lack of rebounding hurt his team in the first half. “What I was concerned about the most was our ability to rebound the ball,” Brady said. “It’s something we really really need to pay attention to.” The Tigers found their touch in the second half. At the 14:00 minute mark, with the score tied 39-39, Thornton drained a three that put the Tigers up. They would not relinquish the lead for the rest of the game. From that point, Thornton and Randolph led the Tigers on a 20-4 run to put the game away. Brady admitted that he called plays specifically designed for Thornton to feed his hot hand. “We ran some things specifically for Marcus in the second half to get him the ball,” Brady said. “We wanted to get him the option of coming off a screen and making a play, which he did three or four times.” Thornton, who played 34 minutes against the Lions, said he was surprised his number was called so much in his first Division I college game. “Yeah, I was [surprised] really,” Thornton said. “But as he called it, I just tried to make sure I got in the right position to make the play happen.” Southeastern coach Jim Yarbrough acknowledged that it’s hard to keep up with an SEC team on the road. “We showed opportunities to maybe get back in the game,” Yarbrough said. “It’s awfully hard to do with somebody who has such talent like an LSU.” Warrell Span, a junior college transfer, led the Lions in scoring with 14 points.
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