Box Score BATON ROUGE – Marcus Thornton scored a season-high 33 points while Tasmin Mitchell added 24 as LSU pulled away with a strong second half and defeated Southeastern Louisiana, 90-61, in the Lions' final non-conference game Saturday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Bo Spencer added 17 points for LSU (12-1), which won its 74th consecutive game against in-state competition and improved to 12-0 at home. The Tigers outscored Southeastern (6-7), 51-30, in the second half with a decisive 16-5 run over a 5:42 span.
“Obviously we're disappointed in the loss … LSU had a point to prove and wanted to go out in good fashion,” Southeastern head coach
Jim Yarbrough said. “They came out in the second half and when they smelled blood in the water, they did a good job.
“We had a poor performance in the last 15 minutes of the game and when you play a lot of road games, go into a lot of buildings and maybe it's too much for me to expect us to mature emotionally to keep battling back. But tonight we stopped and when we stopped playing the game was essentially over.”
Thornton went 11-for-17 from the floor and 4-for-7 from behind the 3-point line as LSU built a 39-31 lead at halftime. Mitchell finished 9-for-16 from the field as LSU went 31-for-66 (47 percent) in the game and forced 18 turnovers.
Southeastern, which was paced by 17 points from
Patrick Sullivan, trailed 9-3 after a 3-pointer by Thornton before coming back with a 12-4 run.
Chris Cyprian started the spurt with a 3-pointer before
Warrell Span hit a jumper to get the Lions with within 9-8.
A layup by freshman
DeShawn Patterson, making his second career start, with 12:45 remaining gave Southeastern its first lead of the game, 15-13, before Sullivan snapped a 15-15 deadlock with a jumper in the lane.
LSU took a 23-21 lead on Mitchell's layup with 6:55 remaining in the first half and the Tigers never trailed again.
After Southeastern cut the lead to 39-35 on a jumper by Sullivan with 18:40 remaining in the game, LSU pushed its lead to eight capped by a pair of free throws by Thornton with 17:06 left.
Span cut the Southeastern deficit to 44-38 with a dunk off a fast break, but the Tigers scored the next 10 points as Mitchell scored on a short jumper and added a three-point play, Thornton nailed a 3-pointer and Spencer scored on a layup for a 54-38 lead with 14:49 remaining.
Span added 12 points and a game-high nine rebounds for Southeastern, which went 24-for-52 (46 percent) from the floor.
Kevyn Green, the Southland Conference's leading scorer (19.9) heading into the contest, was limited to six points on 2-for-7 shooting as he was hounded most of the night by LSU's Garrett Temple.
Brandon Fortenberry added 10 points and a team-high four assists for the Lions, who dropped their third straight game and wrapped up a brutal non-conference schedule that included games at Arkansas, Texas Tech, nationally-ranked Minnesota and Auburn.
Southeastern opens Southland Conference action on Saturday when it travels to Beaumont, Texas to face Lamar in a 7:05 p.m. game at the Montagne Center.
SOUTHEASTERN LOUISIANA (6-7)
Sullivan 6-10 5-10 17; Span 6-9 0-0 12; Fortenberry 3-6 3-4 10; Green 2-7 2-2 6; Forest 2-6 1-2 5; Patterson 2-3 0-2 4; Pope 2-5 0-0 4; Cyprian 1-5 0-0 3; Hankins 0-0 0-0 0; Ndoumba 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-52 11-20 61.
LSU (12-1)
M. Thornton 11-17 7-12 33; Mitchell 9-16 6-8 24; Spencer 6-13 2-2 17; Q. Thornton 2-4 2-4 6; Temple 2-5 1-2 5; Graham 1-1 0-0 2; Johnson 0-4 2-4 2; Bass 0-2 1-2 1; Farrer 0-3 0-0 0; Warren 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 31-66 21-34 90.
Halftime – LSU 39, SLU 31. 3-point goals – SLU 2-8 (Cyprian 1-2; Fortenberry 1-2; Green 0-1; Forest 0-2; Patterson 0-1), LSU 7-18 (M. Thornton 4-7; Spencer 3-7; Johnson 0-2; Bass 0-1; Farrer 0-1). Fouled out - Ndoumba. Rebounds – SLU 34 (Span 9), LSU 37 (Q. Thornton 8). Assists – SLU 13 (Fortenberry 4), LSU 10 (Temple 4). Total fouls – SLU 20, LSU 15. Technical fouls - None. A – 9,310.
