With a 77-69 win over Vanderbilt on Tuesday night, LSU has already matched its SEC win total from last season. It also began league play 2-0 for the first time since the 2019-20 season
LSU relied heavily on its defense in the early goings. It was a sloppy game for Vanderbilt, which turned the ball over nine times in the first half, but the Tigers struggled to take advantage and only got 10 points going the other way.
Still, the LSU lead was stretched out to as big as nine points in the first half, but that wouldn’t last. The Tigers ended the half on a cold streak, hitting just one of their final 10 shots from the floor in a field-goal drought that lasted more than four minutes.
Vanderbilt cut the lead down, and LSU was up just 30-28 heading into the break.
The Tigers got hot again to start the second half, though. They expanded their lead to 15 points, but the Commodores wouldn’t go away so easily. A 7-0 run cut LSU’s lead to just seven heading into the under-four timeout.
But the Tigers’ offense, which shot nearly 50% in the second half, was too much to overcome. It was another huge outing for [autotag]Jalen Cook[/autotag], who scored a game-high 28 points. [autotag]Jordan Wright[/autotag], meanwhile, put up 15 against his former team.
LSU has been playing much better basketball recently, and that will be put to the test on Saturday when the team hits the road to take on a ranked Auburn team.
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