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BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (AP) – Tremont Waters scored 14 points and 8 assists, and LSU won the South East Conference regular season title with an 80-59 win over Vanderbilt on Saturday night in the first match of the season. Tigers without suspended head coach Will Wade.
Darius Days scored 15 points, the highest of the season, and Marshall Graves, the highest of the season, with 12 points (all 3 points) for LSU (26-5, 16-2).
Several players climbed into the student section after the match and donned purple t-shirts for the purple conference championships by chanting "L-S-U! L-S-U!" resonated in the Pete Maravich Gathering Center.
Vanderbilt (9-22, 0-18) became the first team not to win a SEC victory since former Georgia Tech League member in 1954, and the first to have an 18-part conference schedule .
LSU's triumph comes one day after Wade's indefinite suspension following published excerpts of a phone call intercepted between the coach and a man sentenced by a federal court last year. for channeling illegal payments to families of college basketball recruits.
Nearly 14,000 spectators invaded the bowl-shaped arena to see LSU – with Wade's assistant, Tony Benford, debuting as an interim head coach – to wrap up his first title of the SEC in 10 years. But many fans have shared their time between showing solidarity with the players during each positive distance play and protesting the administration during the breaks in the action.
Boos and songs of "Joe must leave!" The student section and a few other corners of the arena fell in the rain when sports director Joe Alleva approached his seat a few rows down the sidelines. Fans also called Alleva "cowardly", implying that LSU is eager to suspend his coach before he has conclusive evidence of wrongdoing.
Many fans have brandished placards stating "Free Will Wade" and "Free Javonte Smart," the freshman and former year-round player in Louisiana, who had apparently been mentioned in the 2017 call. registered by the FBI.
It was still a partisan perspective.
LSU's decision to suspend Wade was hailed by conference commissioner Greg Sankey, who said he found the published excerpts of Wade's phone call on threads "very troubling".
Smart was kept out of the game, although LSU's associate sports director, Robert Munson, pointed out that the decision was made "with great caution" and did not represent any knowledge of acts. wrongful of Smart or his family, which, according to Munson, cooperated with university officials.
LSU also held Naz Reid, but for totally different reasons. He had a hard blow to the head during Wednesday's win in Florida and was treated to an evening with LSU, who had already won first place in the SEC tournament and was planning bigger games.
Saben Lee scored 16 points and Yanni Wetzell had 11 points for Vanderbilt, who struggled to stay at 20 points for much of the second half.
GREAT IMAGE
Vanderbilt: Solid perimeter shooter Matt Ryan missed a third straight game with a hand injury, making it harder for Vandy to keep up with an opponent at top of the league standings. The Commodores spent much of the game with a percentage of shots in 30 seconds before finishing at 41.2% (21 of 51). They were also overwhelmed 38-26.
LSU: The Tigers had enough depth to resist Smart and Reid's absences against the SEC last place team. The Tigers had a double digit lead in the first 10 minutes and had never been threatened with becoming the second LSU team in the program's history to win up to 26 regular season games. The 1981 team holds the school record with 27.
FOLLOWING
Vanderbilt: SEC Tournament Opening Wednesday Night Against Texas A & M
LSU: starts the SEC tournament on Friday in the third round after getting a double-bye.
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