The LSU Tigers (5-2) chalked up their fourth home victory against Louisiana schools Friday night with an 88-45 performance against their cross-town rival Southern Jaguars (1-4)
In a matchup pitting several Baton Rouge-area friends and former teammates against one another, the Tigers were by two out-of-state big men.
“We played against a lot of those guys over the summer,” said freshman forward Anthony Randolph. “It was almost just like playing another pick up game.”
Randolph, a Texas native, led the team with a career high 24 points along with team highs of 11 rebounds and 5 blocks.
Junior center Chris Johnson also posted a career high with 20 points.
LSU coach John Brady also seemed pleased with the team’s defense after stressing it in this week’s practices.
“Our transition defense was terrible in Maui,” Brady said. “But it got a little better this week.”
Neither team shot particularly well – especially in the first half, but LSU’s first half 41 percent field goal shooting bested Southern’s 26 percent. Both team’s went 2-for-11 from beyond the arc.
“I don’t think [Southern coach Rob Spivery] is happy with how they shot tonight,” Brady said. “But hopefully we had a little bit to do with that.”
The Tigers would eventually bring their field goal percentage up to 54 percent with 7-for-19 three-point shooting, while holding the Jaguars to 25 percent from the field and 3-for-19 from three-point range.
“We can’t lose to Southern because a lot of talk will go around [Baton Rouge],” said junior guard Marcus Thornton. “And we just had to try to get this ‘W,’ and make sure we could be the ones doing the talking.”
Thornton added 22 points, seven rebounds, and careers highs of three assists and four steals.
But Randolph, Johnson and Thornton were still not the only players to have career nights.
Freshman forward Garrett Green matched a career high of four points and recorded a new high of eight rebounds.
Sophomore walk-on and fan favorite Greg Terrebonne also chipped in with his first career points — much to the delight of LSU students who had screamed at Brady for several minutes to let him play.
The Maravich Center crowd erupted as Terrebonne’s long two-point jumper went through the net at the buzzer.
“We love that,” Randolph said. “We love to see Terrebonne come off the bench. He’s a big part of our team.”
——Contact Jerit Roser at [email protected].