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After taking a 26-4 lead in the first nine minutes on Thursday night, the LSU basketball team’s season opener with Southern Illinois-Edwardsville appeared to be a walk in the park for the Tigers.
In fact, it was anything but that.
SIUE, who fell to Saint Louis University by 37 points a night earlier, woke up late in the first half and threw a big scare in LSU before the Tigers stood for a 94-81 win in the Billiken Classic in Saint-Louis.
After seeing a once-huge lead shrink to two points at 62-60 with 11:50 a.m. to go, LSU responded with a 21-8 run to restore order just as SIUE looked to spoil coach Will Wade. 38th anniversary.
First-year goaltender Cam Thomas dazzled on his college debut as the Chesapeake, Va. Native racked up 27 points – 16 in the second half – and Darius Days finished with a career-high 24.
Trendon Watford had 13 points and nine career assists and Javonte Smart finished with 10 points and five assists. Watford had seven rebounds, the team’s top, while Days had six.
Mike Adewunmi led SIUE (0-2) with 23 points, while Cam Williams finished with 14. Philip Pepple had 13 points and 10 rebounds.
It was LSU’s first game since the Tigers closed the 2020 regular season with a victory over Georgia on March 7, five days before the college basketball season ended due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We were able to remove a bit of the rust today,” Wade said on his post-game radio show. “Our offense, obviously, is still a bit ahead of our defense at the moment.”
The days started off hot draining three shots in a row past the 3-point arc and added a tip-in to go 5 of 5 from the field, scoring 14 of LSU’s first 22 points that led to advantage 26-4.
Led by Williams, who hit three 3-pointers in a row, SIUE found his balance and was 7 of 8 beyond the arc to come back up. The Cougars reduced the deficit to nine with 3:14 left before the Tigers settled for a 49-34 halftime lead.
“The first eight to 10 minutes, we kept really good,” said Wade. “Then we started to split in the gaps; once we broke into the gaps, we were giving up the long fences and the 3 turns. That’s all we can fix. “
In the second half, SIUE, who ultimately made 13 of 27 3-point attempts, continued to fight LSU and passed the Tigers 26-13 to nearly two.
The Cougars actually had a chance to take the lead, but Williams missed the shot on a 3-point attempt with 10:32 left.
UCLA transfer Shareef O’Neal, a 6-foot-10 forward, then took a 3-point shot to reduce the lead to five at 65-60 – which seemed to energize the Tigers.
Days scored on a driving layup, then sandwiched two old-fashioned three-pointers around a Watford tip-in following a robbery by freshman Eric Gaines .
The second three-point game of the day pushed the lead to 75-68 before rookie Jalen Cook scored five quick points and Thomas added three more to give LSU an 83-68 cushion with 5:11 to to play.
Thomas was 10 of 21 from the field – including 4 of 9 from beyond the arc. Days hit 9 of 11 basket attempts – 4 of 5 at long range as LSU shot 51.7% from the ground.
“That’s what we expect from Cam, he did a great job attacking in the paint and hitting the foul line,” Wade said. “Darius did a great job in the first half eliminating those three. Then he came inside in the second half.
LSU (1-0) will get a day off before facing host Saint Louis (1-0) at 2 p.m. Saturday. The game will stream on ESPN +, which requires a subscription. The LSU Sports Radio Network will also provide coverage.
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