After the first 2½ minutes Wednesday night, LSU was slogging around against Georgia, the worst team in the SEC.

LSU head coach Will Wade didn’t like what he was seeing, so he pulled his senior starters Xavier Pinson and Darius Days off the floor to take a seat on the bench.

“He (Wade) told me if I saw how I was playing, I’d sub myself out,” Pinson said. “I just looked in the mirror and turned it around."

So did the rest of the Tigers, but it took a little longer than anticipated. A searing run to close the first half pushed LSU to a 16-point halftime lead and on to an 84-65 victory after leading by 32 points with just five minutes left.

While Wade was miffed that some of his benchwarmers allowed Georgia to score on 6 of its last 7 possessions – “The junk that happened at the end was just infuriating to me,” he said – he couldn’t deny his team’s defense in the first 35 minutes was a thing of beauty.

LSU’s full-court trapping defense led to 26 Georgia turnovers resulting in 31 Tigers’ points. The swarming defense caused four Georgia shot clock violations and a 10-second call for failing to advance the ball past midcourt. LSU’s 16 steals were the most by Wade’s team this season against an SEC opponent.

“We thought we could get to them with our pressure,” said Wade, whose team improved to 19-7 overall and 7-6 in the SEC with its third consecutive victory. “We were aggressive. We did a good job with the scouting report. We knew where the shooters were. We knew where the drivers were.”

The Bulldogs (6-20, 1-12 SEC) managed to take a five-point lead at 15-10 with 10:40 left in the first half and still led 20-19 with 6:44 remaining before the Tigers’ full-court trap burned Georgia to the ground.

LSU closed the half with a 19-2 rally with Georgia committing five turnovers and missing its last six shots. The Tigers’ last eight field goals of the half were six layups and two dunks. LSU scored 20 first-half points off 15 turnovers on its way to a 38-22 halftime lead.

From that point, it only got worse for Georgia. The Bulldogs had no one who could handle LSU sophomore forward Tari Eason, who scored 21 points and collected 9 rebounds.

Pinson and Days, after their temporary early benching, came alive. Pinson finished with 7 points, 10 assists and 4 steals while Days picked up a blue-collar double-double of 15 points and 12 rebounds despite hitting just 1 of 7 3-pointers.

Also, freshman guard Brandon Murray scored 15 points, keyed by 3 of 5 3-pointers.

LSU, helped by the fact 25 of its 34 made field goals were layups, dunks and follow shots off misses, shot just under 50 percent from the field and outrebounded Georgia 35-27 including 16 offensive rebounds resulting in 23 second-chance points.

Georgia’s entire offense was sophomore guard Kario Oquendo, who scored 26 points. No other Bulldogs player reached double figures.

“We have to attack the press better,” said Georgia coach Tom Crean, whose team had six fewer made field goals (20) than turnovers. “We didn’t attack the press as well as we did in practice whether that be using ball screens or getting the ball through the middle. We didn’t do a good enough job on the glass. We just have to do a better job in games like this.”

With five games left in the regular season starting with Saturday’s road date at South Carolina, LSU is tied for fifth place in the league with Alabama. The Tigers play the Crimson Tide at home in the PMAC March 5 on the final Saturday of the regular season in a nationally-televised CBS game.

“We took care of business tonight, but we know it is going to be tougher as we move forward from here,” Wade said.