LSU’s second-half offensive explosion ensured it would sidestep the same conclusion as last season’s matchup against Houston.
One of its early, defining losses last season came against the Cougars, when then-sophomore guard Rob Gray Jr. poured in 31 points with a 10-for-19 shooting clip to help the Cougars overwhelm the Tigers in overtime, 105-98.
Tuesday, there would be neither an overtime thriller nor a loss for LSU (5-2) as it utilized an early second-half run to pull away from Houston (5-1) and rebound from its 1-2 stand in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament.
The Tigers defeated the Cougars, 84-65, in the PMAC behind sophomore guard Antonio Blakeney’s game-high 23 points, nine of which came from behind the 3-point arc.
“Every win feels good but this feels a little better just because they were undefeated, they beat us last year and people saying they’re supposed to be a top 20 team,” Blakeney said. “We’re just trying to show what we can do. Prove people wrong.”
The same Rob Gray who scored 20 regulation points before pouring in 11 in overtime last year showed up on Tuesday night. The 6-foot-1 junior registered a team-high 19 points on a 6-for-11 clip from the field.
However, junior forward Craig Victor scored 13 points and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds in his first game in the starting lineup after a three-game suspension followed by three games coming off the bench in the Bahamas.
LSU dominated the boards, 46-28, and crashed the offensive glass to the tune of 20 offensive rebounds that turned into 23 second-chance points compared to Houston’s five. Victor led with five offensive rebounds while Blakeney collected four.
“Sometimes we get relaxed and teams come back,” Victor said. “We did a great job on the boards. I think that contributed a big deal. Defensively, our wings did a great job of containing their wings. Our defense is what won us the game tonight.”
The Tigers entered halftime with a one-point lead despite junior forward Duop Reath sitting out the first half’s last 16:16 after picking up a pair of quick fouls. Sampson led LSU’s offensive attack scoring 14 of his 16 points and converting 4-of-6 3-pointers in the half.
Opening the second period, LSU went on a 14-4 run, 10 of which came from Blakeney and junior guard Jalyn Patterson. Patterson finished with five points on four shot attempts.
Junior forward Aaron Epps joined the scoring barrage as LSU outpaced Houston by 18 points in the final 20 minutes. He posted 11 points with a perfect 5-for-5 shooting clip after scoring just one by halftime and grabbed seven rebounds.
Houston senior forward Danrad Knowles, who was the Cougars’ second-leading scorer with 20 points last season, was stymied to three points and played just 14 minutes with foul trouble.
“Good consecutive practices leading up until this point,” Victor said. “We had a good experience in the Bahamas, and we just wanted to come back with an edge about ourselves.”
LSU coach Johnny Jones said it was his team’s most complete 40-minute performance this season.
“In the first half without Duop to hold on and play that well, and then in the second half I thought we came out and did a great job offensively of executing and on the defensive end of getting stops early,” Jones said. “And as the game continued to play out, I thought our guys did a tremendous job of competing at a really high level against one of the better teams we’ll have an opportunity to face this preseason prior to conference play.”