The smooth-operating LSU basketball team that started the season 15-1 and climbed to 12th in the national rankings established a 20-point halftime lead at Texas A&M Tuesday night.

Then, the Tigers’ foul-prone, turnover-infested squad that lost six of its last seven games re-appeared in several stretches of the second half against the Aggies.

Fortunately, sophomore forward Tari Eason evened out LSU’s rough spots by scoring 17 of his game-high 25 points in the second half as the Tigers broke a three-game losing streak with a 76-68 SEC victory.

For the first time since the Tigers’ fantastic start to their 2021-22 season, having a relatively healthy starting senior point guard Xavier Pinson allowed LSU coach Will Wade to return to the eight-man rotation that provided his team’s early season rise.

“It was as close as we've been to normal in a month, you can see the difference,” said Wade, whose team improved to 17-7 overall, 5-6 in the SEC. "I don't want to oversimplify everything. Every single one of those guys matters, but obviously `X’ (Pinson) is one of the most critical pieces to the whole thing.”

Pinson, making just his second start since spraining a knee vs. Tennessee on Jan. 8, finally looked like he re-gained a large portion of his quickness. His 11 points and 4 assists and floor leadership in 25 minutes of playing time enabled Wade to return Eason back to his role as the Tigers’ scoring energy off the bench.

“When we have our full roster we win,” Pinson said, “and when we don’t, well, we have problems. We’ve missed the details of how you get guys to think about getting ball reversal, setting screens, getting ball movement, making guys rotate. The ball kind of stuck a lot and we didn’t get into plays. That’s what I feel we were missing.”

The Tigers led 36-16 at halftime, closing the first half on a 23-3 run in the last 9:23 when A&M missed 14 of 16 shots while LSU made 8 of 11 including 4 3-pointers.

“(It felt) refreshing, like a weight was lifted off our back,” said Eason, who was one point shy of a career best and who collected his sixth double-double this season. “The ball was moving really well. It showed us we can get back to playing how we play.”

The sloppiness that infiltrated the Tigers during their losing woes over the last month reared its ugly head at the start of the second half.

A&M’s 22-10 scoring run in the first 8:18 after intermission to cut LSU’s lead to 46-38 with 11:42 left was keyed by the Tigers committing six turnovers, being whistled for four fouls, missing 6 of 10 shots and allowing 6 second-chance points off 5 A&M offensive rebounds.

At that point, Eason re-ignited the fading Tigers. He scored all of LSU’s points in an 11-2 rally over the next 2½ minutes that boosted the lead back to 17 points at 57-40 with 8:52 left to play.

From there, LSU was able to get across the finish line a winner despite its season-high 22 turnovers and allowing the most offensive rebounds (22) by an opponent this season.

“It was the difference in two halves in whatever statistical category you would look at,” said Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams, whose team lost its seventh straight game and fell to 15-9 overall, 4-7 in the SEC. “We were as bad as you could be in the first half, and arguably as good as you can be in the second half. Our energy, togetherness, fight and execution were very poor by everybody except Manny Obaseki in the first half. And you could argue that it was diametrically opposed to that in the second half.”

Former Baton Rouge McKinley High star Tyrece Radford led the Aggies with 15 points.

LSU, which finished the first half shooting 13 of 24 (54 percent from the field including 7 of 10 3-pointers, ended the night at 25 of 51 (49 percent) including 8 of 16 3’s. A&M was just 32.8 percent (21 of 64 from the field), including a frigid 26.7 percent (8 of 30) in 3-pointers.

Despite getting dominated in offensive rebounds, LSU managed to tie the Aggies with 40 rebounds each.

With the Tigers’ next two games at home vs. Mississippi State on Saturday at 7 p.m and next Wednesday vs. Georgia at 6 p.m., LSU’s win over the Aggies was vital to restart momentum and regain confidence.

“We're not idiots, we knew what was at stake,” Wade said. “I'm proud of our guys. It's not easy to do when everybody's piling on you. . .(to) come out, bow up and play like that says a lot about our guys.”