Sophomore guard Tremont Waters fed the ball to his big men Saturday night and they feasted as LSU defeated South Carolina 89-67.
Six Tigers ended the game in double figures, but it was LSU’s dominate front-court performance that put their stamp on this one. Freshman forward Emmitt Williams and senior forward Kavell Bigby-Williams both recorded double-doubles and absolutely owned the glass.
While all of LSU’s big men played well, it was Williams who provided the spark and intensity that would set the tone for the rest of the game.
“He was my favorite high school player last year”, said South Carolina coach Frank Martin.
The rebound battle proved pivotal tonight as the Tigers out-rebounded the Gamecocks by a 49-29 margin which made up for an abysmal 3-point shooting performance by LSU where they shot 3-of-19 from behind the arc for 15.8 percent.
“I’ve never coached a game like this today where we got destroyed on the glass”, Martin said about his team’s rebounding woes.
With LSU’s relentless pursuit to crash the glass, the Tigers were able to get to the free-throw line where they shot 32-of-35 for 91.4 percent. LSU had more made free throws than South Carolina had attempts and even when the Gamecocks got to the line, they shot a total of 6-of-14 for 42.9 percent.
“It was good to see us win a different way”, said LSU coach Will Wade. “You gotta have other ways to win and for us to win when we didn’t shoot it well from three is certainly a positive.”
LSU had the first half mostly in hand where they led by as much as 20 points and were up for a total of 16:16 minutes. The free-throw advantage was huge with Tigers getting to the bonus by the 7:58 mark in the first half where they were 13-of-16 for 81.3 percent. LSU rode this wave to a 48-28 lead at the half.
The second half was a game of runs and scoring lulls for both teams. The Tigers were able to build up a 33-point lead at one point, but it wouldn’t hold as the Gamecocks rolled off a 10-0 run to cut the lead down. South Carolina at one point was able to get within 19 points of LSU, but the Tigers hit the gas pedal one last time to put this one away.
The dominating performance by LSU tonight leaves only two Southeastern Conference teams unbeaten now. The Gamecocks, who were previously unbeaten in the SEC, now fall to 4-1 and 9-8 overall. LSU improves to 4-0 in the conference and 14-3 overall.
LSU takes on Georgia Wednesday, Jan. 23 in the PMAC at 6 p.m. on the SEC Network.