A Pete Maravich Assembly Center crowd of nearly 12,000 celebrated Saturday as LSU rolled to 4-0 in SEC play in emphatic fashion.

The Tigers (14-3, 4-0) rolled past visiting South Carolina (9-8, 4-1) by an 89-67 margin to continue their best conference start since a 2006 Final Four team under coach John Brady.

LSU didn’t shoot with the best percentage, but the ball movement was as good as it’s been all season long, leading to foul calls and good looks on offense.

“This isn’t a team you’re going to have a lot of assists against,” Wade said. “We talked all week about having great pace and great space. We were reversing the ball at 30 feet sometimes. I thought we moved the ball well. For the most part we played on two feet, we sat down and read the defense, made good reads and got good shots.”

A balanced offensive attack left six Tiger players in double figures.

Freshman forward Emmitt Williams turned out an impressive performance off the bench with team highs of 15 points with 13 boards for the third double-double of his career.

Sophomore point guard Tremont Waters carved up the South Carolina defense for 12 points and six assists, consistently getting into the paint and dishing the ball to his teammates at the rim.

Waters became the 12th player in LSU history to record 300 assists in his career, and South Carolina coach Frank Martin lauded his ability to create for his teammates.

“He's an unbelievable competitor that's got great instincts for the game,” Martin said. “He gets everybody involved. The competitor he is puts him over the top. I think he's phenomenal. He's one of my favorite players in the conference."

Freshman forward Naz Reid also had a strong game with 15 points and six rebounds and took an early charge that sparked the fans, team and a 7-0 run.

The latest charge came after Reid took three against No. 18 Ole Miss in the 75-54 win over the Rebels.

The Gamecocks committed 10 first-half turnovers including seven off of steals that led to transition baskets on the other end.

LSU had 12 points off turnovers in the first half and went to the free throw line 16 times, knocking down 13 of those attempts. For the game, the Tigers went 32-for-35 at the free throw line — a 91 percent clip — and scored 20 points off 16 Gamecock turnovers.

Wade had the team make 100 free throws after a two-hour long practice on Friday because he felt they would be drawing a lot of fouls. The team shot 92 percent in the practice which carried over to the game.

“I thought if we could not turn the ball over, could win the free throw rebounding battle and win the free throw battle I thought we’d win the game,” Wade said. “We won all three categories.”

On the other end, South Carolina went just 6-of-14 at the charity stripe in the game while forcing 13 LSU turnovers but only turning those into 12 points on the offensive end.

The Tigers hadn’t had a dominant performance on the glass in SEC play, but that all changed Saturday night as LSU out-rebounded South Carolina 49-29. The 15 offensive rebounds LSU grabbed led to 20 second-chance points.

“We’ve been practicing very hard,” Williams said. “Our leaders have been telling us we need to go hard at the glass, and we’re improving each and every day.”

LSU kept the pressure on in the second half, never letting the lead to get under 20 points and getting as high as 33.

After pushing the lead up to 31, the Tigers went on a dry spell where they failed to score for more than five minutes, allowing the Gamecocks to cut the lead to 21.

LSU didn’t panic and pushed the lead back up to 27 following a timeout, allowing it to empty the bench with Marshall Graves and Will Reese who received their first run in SEC play this season.

The Tigers will now gear up for Georgia at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the PMAC.