LSU Secures third win in a row after battling UNO, 91-62

BATON ROUGE, LA – The LSU Men’s Basketball team defeated the University of New Orleans, 91-62, Thursday in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. 

The Tigers will travel to the Cayman Islands for their next game versus Illinois State Monday, November 21 at 10:00 a.m. CT. This will be their first game in the Cayman Islands Classic. 

The LSU Tigers took a 9-0 run early on in period one, as the University of New Orleans (UNO) struggled to keep up. By the 10-minute mark of the first half, LSU was up by 11. A massive block by Kendal Coleman showed the Tigers’ defensive strength against the UNO Privateers. With two minutes remaining in the game, Derek Fountain and Adam Miller totaled seven points for the Tigers.

By the end of the first half LSU led 47-26. Junior Forward Derek Fountain led the team with 13 points, four rebounds, and five steals. Senior Guard Justice Hill followed close behind with nine points, two rebounds, and two assists. 

Jalen Reed made an easy dunk to start the Tigers off in the second half. This was also Reed’s first points of the game. The crowd went wild in the PMAC after two back-to-back dunks by Hill and Hannibal. These dunks helped the Tigers advance their lead by 28. (63-35 LSU) 

In the paint, Cam Hayes scored to get the Tigers to 70. 28 of the Tigers’ points were in the paint by the 9-minute mark of the second half. In comparison, UNO only had 18 points in the paint, a 10 point deficit. 

With five minutes remaining in the game, Cam Hayes managed to beat the shot-clock with a clean corner three-pointer to put the Privateers behind by 34. 

Tyrell Ward ended a 7-0 UNO run with his first bucket in the game. This put the Tigers at 91-62 to end the game. 

Stat leaders for LSU included Fountain with 17 points, eight rebounds, two assists, and seven steals; Hayes with 13 points, one assist, and one block. 

Stat leaders for UNO included Khaleb Wilson-Rouse with 21 points, eight rebounds, two assists, and one steal; Tyson Jackson  with 14 points, one assist, two rebounds, and one steal.

*LSU Press Release

Matt McMahon quotes

“Really proud of our players and the progress that we made. I know the score turned out well for
us, but what I was most pleased with was that I thought we were more of a team today. Watching
the celebrators celebrate each other’s success, that is something we really want to continue to
build. I’m really fired up for Derek Fountain and Cam Hayes. They were fantastic tonight and I
don’t think it was an accident. They’ve had great practices, they have shown great leadership, and
I think both were very prepared for when their opportunity came. Their impact on the game was
obviously huge.”

Talk about the 51 points the bench contributed …

“I think it started at the defensive end. Fountain off the bench had seven steals and he led us in
offensive rebounds. Those were big-effort, hustle-type plays. That gave us the ability to go out
there and get some transition, easier baskets, and some confidence on the offensive end. I
thought the bench was great. Kendal Coleman got seven rebounds, I thought he was very
physical. Adam Miller got a lot of good looks. We want him to take every single one of those
threes. It was very encouraging for me to see us go 12-for-28 from three on a night that he didn’t
shoot as well as he’s capable of. He’s one of the top shooters in all of college basketball. I
thought that balance off the bench was key to the game.”

Box Score