LSU earned its first ranked win of the season on Wednesday night, moving to 11-6 overall and 3-1 in SEC play with an 89-80 win over the Ole Miss Rebels in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The Rebels managed to take several decent-sized leads in the first half, and the Tigers found themselves trailing by as much as seven. But in large part thanks to big halves from [autotag]Jordan Wright[/autotag] and [autotag]Jalen Reed[/autotag], who had 11 and eight points in the frame, respectively, LSU took a 35-33 lead to the locker room despite shooting just 41.4% as a team.
However, the Tigers shot above 50% in the second half while Ole Miss shot just 32.4%. They stretched their lead to as much as 16 points, and though Ole Miss would cut it to single digits a few times, it never got closer than five points in the final 10 minutes.
Wright finished with a game-high 27 points, while [autotag]Jalen Cook[/autotag] ultimately finished behind him with 16 points. The Tigers allowed big nights to stars Jaylen Murray (23 points), Matthew Murrell (20 points) and Allen Flanigan (19 points), but the rest of the Rebels struggled to get going.
LSU will be back in action on Saturday for a rematch in Baton Rouge against the Texas A&M team it upset in College Station to begin SEC play.
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