If Texas A&M fans were heartbroken last season when LSU’s Tremont Waters hit a game-winning 30-foot plus 3-pointer in College Station, he returned to Aggieland Wednesday to prolong the agony.
On a night when most of the No. 19 Tigers couldn’t shoot straight, the diminutive sophomore guard kept LSU unbeaten in SEC play by scoring 36 points in a 72-57 victory.
Waters scored 23 of LSU’s 37 first-half points when the Tigers led by a point at the break, then made a series of plays in the second half after A&M cut LSU’s lead to single digits.
Waters finished three points shy of his career-high 39 points against Marquette last season. His 36 points were the most by an LSU player in SEC play since Ben Simmons rang up 36 in the Tigers’ 2016 league-opening win at Vanderbilt.
While LSU coach Will Wade described Waters’ night against the Aggies as phenomenal, he credited his entire team as playing “one of our best games” of the year despite a combined 9-of-35 field goal misfiring from the other four starters besides Waters.
“Our defense was really good both halves,” Wade said in his LSU radio network postgame show after his team won its 10th straight game to improve to 17-3 overall and 7-0 in the SEC. “I thought in the second half we imposed our will. That’s how you’ve got to win on the road, just kind of put them in meat-grinder.
No other Tiger scored in double figures besides Waters. But LSU got some vastly improved second-half performances from Kavell Bigby-Williams and Naz Reid, the Tigers’ bigs who were invisible in opening half.
Just as Darius Days showed in the first 20 minutes when he scored six points off three offensive rebounds, Bigby-Williams and Reid pounded the boards in the second half as LSU finished with 21 offensive rebounds.
Despite Waters’ sizzling first half when he hit 5-of-7 threes – most of them from NBA 3-point range – the Tigers led just 37-36 at the break.
The Aggies, one of the worst offensive teams in the SEC, stayed on LSU’s heels because they were 14-of-18 from the free throw line and because of the Tigers’ awful shooting sans Waters.
A&M alternated man-to-man, 2-3 zone and matchup zone defenses, but the Aggies didn’t flummox LSU. The Tigers consistently had wide-open shots and clanked most of them.
Reid and guards Skylar Mays and Javonte Smart were combined 1-of-19 from the field including 0-of-11 3s (all missed by Mays and Smart).
Also, LSU’s transition defense didn’t show up in the opening half. It seemed like anytime A&M guard T.J. Starks wanted to jet coast-to-coast, he did so with no problem accounting for 15 points.
The Tigers went on 15-4 run in the opening 5:03 of the second half to grab a 51-40 lead. Starks, who scored just six points after intermission to finish with a team-high 21 points, then nailed a 3-pointer to begin an A&M run.
When the Aggies cut LSU’s lead to seven points at 62-55 with 5:32 left, Waters responded with six straight points. He started with a three-point play on a driving layup into a crowd to draw the foul and nailed the free throw.
While Mays had one of the worst offensive games of his three-year LSU career – he scored just a layup on 1-of-10 shooting including 0-of-7 3s – Wade noted Mays’ defense on A&M’s Wendell Mitchell.
Mitchell scored 22 points in the Aggies’ (8-11, 1-6 SEC) SEC/Big 12 Shootout 65-53 victory over Kansas State on Saturday. He scored but two points on 1-of-8 shooting trying to unsuccessfully shake Mays.
“Wendell Mitchell also had seven 3’s against Florida this year,” Wade said. “The defensive job he (Mays) did on Mitchell was unreal.”
In the end, LSU’s 72 points was its lowest output in SEC play this season. But ironically, it equaled the amount the Tigers’ football team scored in its seven-overtime regular season ending loss at Texas A&M.
LSU, still sharing the SEC lead with No. 1 nationally ranked Tennessee, now plays two of its next three games at home.
On Saturday at 5 p.m. in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, LSU plays Arkansas, which lost to the Tigers 94-88 in overtime in Fayetteville on Feb. 2. The Tigers hit the road next Wednesday when they visit Mississippi State before returning home for a Feb. 9 showdown against high-powered Auburn.
“It’ll be fun to be back in the PMAC,” Wade said.
