LSU’s men’s basketball team could have let another road game fall in the loss column this weekend with the Tigers sitting on the verge of a tough two-week stretch. But Trent Johnson’s team wasn’t going to let upcoming games against Mississippi State, No. 15 Xavier, Tennessee and Arkansas steer any focus away from routing Ole Miss, 81-53.”In all sincerity, if you start looking down the line, you’re showing a complete lack of respect for competition,” Johnson said Monday.The Tigers (14-3, 2-1) entered Saturday’s game against Ole Miss (10-7, 1-2) as one of just three Southeastern Conference teams without a road win and left Oxford, Miss., with a 28-point pasting of the Rebels.”We’re playing well,” Johnson said. “Our last home game versus South Carolina and of course on the road versus Ole Miss, I thought we probably played in both games — in the first half — as good basketball as we’ve played all year long. It’s a good time to start playing well. We’re getting contributions from a lot of guys right now.”Johnson said success starts to rest on matchups and adjustments at this point in the season.”Ole Miss came with a 2-2-1 full court [press] so we were able to put [senior center] Chris [Johnson] in the middle and turn and find [senior guard] Marcus [Thornton] on the baseline, find [junior forward] Tasmin [Mitchell] on the baseline. Chris can pass, and he can catch it. He makes good decisions when he’s confident, and he’s playing confident right now.”LSU set the tone for the game right from tip-off. The Tigers capitalized on four Rebel turnovers in the game’s first three minutes and shot 75 percent on the way to a 12-0 lead that wouldn’t be challenged.The Tigers led, 28-13, at the 10-minute mark in the first half and went into halftime with a 41-18 advantage.”I am happy for our group,” Trent Johnson said. “We’ve been frustrated with our performances on the road. We feel very fortunate, even though we played well, to go on the road and pick up a win in this league. It’s a good thing.”Mitchell led the Tigers in scoring for the second consecutive game, following Wednesday night’s 30-point, 14-rebound performance with 17 points and five rebounds.In addition to Mitchell, three other LSU starters posted double-digits. Senior guard Garrett Temple was 4-for-6 from the 3-point line on the way to 14 points and nine assists. Thornton shot 6-for-8 from the free-throw line and finished with 13 points, while sophomore point guard Bo Spencer added 12.Chris Johnson finished just shy of double-digits with nine points but added 12 rebounds and four blocks.”From the standpoint of Tasmin Mitchell, Chris Johnson and Garrett Temple, those guys have been around, so there’s the experience factor there,” Johnson said. “It wasn’t like we were coming in here thinking if we didn’t play well, we would win. [Ole Miss] had a chance to beat Florida on the road, and they beat a really good Arkansas team, so we knew we had to be at our best.”Ole Miss has played the majority of this season without three key contributors – sophomore guards Chris Warren and Trevor Gaskins and junior guard Eniel Polynice – and it showed against LSU.The Rebels had 13 turnovers to LSU’s five and were out-rebounded, 46-33. They also reached the free-throw line just five times and took no free throws in the first half. With the exception of freshman guard Terrico White, who scored 22 points on 56 percent shooting, the Rebels shot just 24.5 percent from the field.”I was hoping we could close the half a little more efficiently. Obviously, we came up empty,” said Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy in a postgame interview. “If we could have got it to 17 or 18, we’re in our own building, maybe we could have made a run to try and chip away. We just couldn’t do it. We couldn’t make a play. We were very inefficient offensively, even when we had chances to score.”LSU faces its second-straight opponent from Mississippi on Wednesday night, when defending western division champion Mississippi State comes to the PMAC.—-Contact David Helman at [email protected]