LSU clamps down Texas A&M in first half, coasts to 66-55 victory

No. 13 LSU (23-5, 13-2) clamped Texas A&M (12-15, 5-10) to a season-low 20 points at the halftime Tuesday to maintain its share of the lead in the SEC race with a 66-55 victory.

The Tigers hadn't played in a game decided by more than five points since visiting the Aggies on Jan. 30, including three overtime affairs in the past three weeks.

But, even again without Tremont Waters and despite its own shooting woes, coach Will Wade's team was able to control the rematch from start to finish.

"We didn't have our leading scorer, and you've gotta be able to win different ways," Wade said. "I like the fact that we're able to win different ways and find different ways, and I think that's a good thing to have as we move forward."

LSU shot just 23-for-66 (35 percent) from the field and 2-for-19 from (11 percent) from beyond the arc.

The Tigers relied heavily on 10 dunks and 40 points in the paint for the vast majority of their scoring.

Another 18 points came from 18-for-21 foul shooting, leaving just eight points on jump shots.

"We kept shooting, so they were getting the offensive rebounds and going back up," freshman guard Javonte Smart said. "Before the game, coach said to feed the bigs in the post and let them work out and beat 'em in the paint. And we did, and it worked out."

But LSU ensured the Aggies a far more frustrating evening on the other end of the court.

"We only turned the ball over nine times," Wade said. "That's two straight games we've had under 10 turnovers, which has been tremendous. We had a season-high for deflections in this game. We were all over the place with our hands out. Our hand activity was great. So, overall, just a good, good win."

Texas A&M hit just 19 of its 60 attempts (32 percent) from the floor and 4-for-22 (18 percent) from 3-point range.

"I was really impressed with LSU's defensive intensity," Texas A&M coach Billy Kennedy said. "Their entire defense is really hard to score against. When you try to penetrate the defense, they give you a hard time because they guarded. But in the first half, we had 10 turnovers, and we shot too many 3's. But it had to do with LSU's defense."

The Tigers had stretched their lead to double-digits with nearly seven minutes remaining in the opening half and didn't allow Texas A&M to cut back any closer until 2:31 remaining.

Even then, the proximity lasted all of 44 seconds.

Freshman forward Naz Reid led all players with 18 points and 11 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season after a frustrating one-point outing Saturday.

"Just looking at the next play," he said. "Tennessee's kind of in my rearview — I'm pretty sure in all of our rearviews. Our focus was on Texas A&M and wasn't able to score the ball as I wanted to. But, like I said before, doing other things shows that I can do more than just score — defending, rebounding, blocked shots, a steal, or whatever I can do — just to help our team win."

Smart provided 17 points, seven rebounds and three assists.

Junior guard Skylar Mays finished with 11 points, six rebounds and five assists to go over the 1,000-point mark for his career.

"It means the world," the University Lab product said. "I think it's just a sign of hard work paying off. I'm happy to be in that club and just wanna thank everybody who's passed me the ball and got me the looks and things like that. I'm kinda speechless."

And senior center Kavell Bigby-Williams notched his eighth double-double of the season with 10 points and 11 rebounds.

"If you go look at our teams at VCU, we did that a lot," Wade said. "This is how we played. My last year at VCU, we had to play like this. We had some more bench points. We had some more depth. But we just kind of grinded you like this, but we scored a bunch in the paint, scored a bunch at the free-throw line. We didn't shoot it particularly well from 3. We had one guy, I think, that shot over 35 percent from 3 on our team. So this is just kind of what we did."

Junior guard Marlon Taylor scored 10 points, as the five starters scored all of the Tigers' points.

Waters missed his second straight game with an undisclosed illness.

"It's our third game in six days," Wade said. "It's been a rough six days. We have some guys who are banged up and nicked up — nothing serious. But we just basically needed to survive this and get a day of rest tomorrow and prepare for Alabama.

"It's good to have Tre back on the bench — before I get 100 questions about that. He's doing much better. It was just kind of our call to sit him for tonight. He's probably not quite 100 percent, but he's very, very close, but I suspect he'll practice with us for a few days and be ready to go against Alabama. He probably could've played a little bit for us tonight, maybe, but he hadn't practiced."

LSU moves on to back-to-back road games at Alabama (17-11, 8-7) and Florida (16-11, 8-6) before closing the season at home against Vanderbilt (9-18, 0-14).

The Tigers remain tied with Kentucky (24-4, 13-2) and Tennessee (24-3, 12-2) atop the league standings with wins over both the Wildcats and Volunteers under their belt.

"(An SEC championship) is what our eyes are on," Mays said. "We control our own destiny. We've just gotta win out. Obviously we have to focus on Alabama and take one game at a time, but it's right there, so I think that we're just gonna play even more hungry the closer we get."