After losing their first home game of the season on Saturday to Stephen F. Austin, the Tigers bounced back with a 80-58 route of Sam Houston State.
LSU went with its twin towers of senior forwards Aaron Epps and Duop Reath to start the game and Sam Houston State went small with Abrian Edwards.
Edwards torched the duo early with six points and led all scorers with 22.
“We got off to a little bit of a rough start,” Wade said. “I thought we settled in with changing our defenses as well.”
Setting up the offense was a problem in the first five minutes of the game as LSU found themselves in a 17-9 early deficit.
The three ball has been a key component for coach Will Wade’s young team, but Tuesday night was a forgetful night from downtown. LSU settled for three often in the first half and hit on just one of its first 10 from distance.
Defensive intensity picked up to end the half with Sam Houston State scoring just eight points in the final 11 minutes of the half allowing LSU to take a 38-29 lead into the break.
“I think that’s the most active we’ve been for a ten minute stretch,” sophomore guard Skylar Mays said. “That’s something we can work off of.”
An area of concern for LSU was allowing 15 offensive rebounds for the game which led to second chance opportunities.
“Our guards weren’t cracking down and helping out on the glass,” Wade said. “I was going to explode but we did a better job of locking down.”
“That’s unacceptable,” Mays said. “We’re not going to win a lot of games like that but fortunately we were able to get a lot of deflections at the top. That’s something we’re going to have to work on.”
LSU scored 11 straight points to open the second half and secure a 20 point lead.  The backcourt duo of graduate transfer Randy Onwuasor and Mays were a key component to the success in the second half with Onwuasor scoring all of his 13 points in the second. Mays added eight more.
The Tigers led by as many as 30 points in the second half.
Up next for the Tigers is a Friday night matchup against North Florida in the PMAC at 7 p.m. It will be the final home non-conference game before SEC play begins.