LSU Tigers rout Southern Miss Golden Eagles 90-62 to close out their nonconference schedule. Dedan Thomas Jr. and Mike Nwoko star as LSU heads into SEC play red-hot.
The LSU Tigers Men's basketball team is going to head into SEC play feeling great after cruising past the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles by a score of 90-62 on Monday night.
This win moves the Tigers to 12-1 on the season and 8-0 at home. This has been a much-needed start to the year for Matt McMahon, who entered the year on the hot seat after a poor start to his LSU career.
The Tigers will still need to prove it against the better competition of the SEC, but this is clearly the best squad that McMahon has had in Baton Rouge. The best parts of it were all on display during Monday's win.
This was the best game that Dedan Thomas Jr. has had in purple and gold. McMahon has needed a point guard to run his offense the right way and he finally has it.
Thomas finished with 22 points on 8-of-11 fro the field with 12 assists to just two turnovers. It's hard to ask anyone to have much cleaner of a game.
Mike Nwoko is the other key cog that makes this offense run, as he has been the most efficient player in the conference. He entered the night shooting 70.5% from the field and proceeded to score 22 points on 10-of-13 with five blocks.
Pablo Tamba has done the dirty work all year and had nine points with 14 rebounds in this game. Marquel Sutton had nine points and 11 rebounds.
When everyone fills their roles like tonight, this team can compete with anyone.
LSU will kick off conference play on the road against the 10-3 Texas A&M Aggies on January 3. That'll be a great test to see where they stand this season and prove that things really are different.