by Kent Lowe, Sr. Associate Sports Information Director
BATON ROUGE -- The LSU men’s basketball team made its 2009-10 debut a successful one with an 82-62 win over the University of Louisiana-Monroe Friday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The Tigers (1-0) now face Indiana State Monday night at 7 p.m. at the PMAC in the first round of the Dick’s Sporting Good NIT Season Tip-off. LSU is the third seed and the host for the South region which also include Milwaukee and Western Kentucky which meet in the opener at 4:30 p.m. on Monday.
Bo Spencer, who had 21 points in the opener a year ago for LSU, had 23 for the Tigers in the win with five assists in 38 minutes. Tasmin Mitchell hit 7-of-14 field goal attempts for 15 points and Storm Warren had his second career double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds to go with four assists and three blocks in 24 minutes.
ULM was led by Malcolm Thomas and Tony Hooper with 11 each and Warren Fuselier had 10.
LSU pretty much put the game away early jumping out to a 14-0 lead over the course of the first 7:30 of the game. Mitchell hit the first two points of the season, followed by a Warren layup. Two free throws by Spencer made it 6-0 and Chris Bass laid in a ball to make it 8-0. The count went to 10-0 on a Mitchell jumper in the paint and then Dennis Harris scored his first LSU points to advance the margin to 12-0. Warren added one more jumper at the 12:31 mark to make it 14-0 before Warren Fuselier scored for ULM at the 12:15 mark to make it 14-2.
LSU led 40-29 at the half, and a three pointer by Tony Hooper cut the game to eight points for the Tigers, but ULM got no closer and LSU built as much as a 24-point lead in the final two minutes.
LSU Basketball vs. UL-Monroe
November 13, 2009
LSU HEAD COACH TRENT JOHNSON
Opening Statement ...
“It was nice to get that one out of the way. I thought Chris Bass and Dennis Harris did a really good job coming off the bench and giving us some lift. Obviously, we got off to a good start with some great energy. For those two to come off, it shows the improvement they’ve made along with Storm (Warren). We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got a very good basketball team coming in here. Indiana State is an experienced team with a lot of discipline. Our deficiencies from an experience factor are going to be exposed. It’s one of these games that, as a coach, you’d like to have a little more time to practice and all those types of things. We’ll be here at 10 a.m. watching video tape and getting ready to go at it again.”
On Storm Warren ...
“Storm was in a situation at the four where he had a strength advantage. Obviously, he works extremely hard with rebounding and that’s what we need and expect from him. Because they pressured, he was open two or three times on the back line. What I thought he did a better job of, which is a great sign, is how he finished at the rim. He had two contested left shoulder jump hooks and that’s good for us. From a rebounding and energy standpoint defensively, that’s what I expected from him. He’s going to have to get better from each game out.”
On the guard combinations ...
“I prefer to see Bo (Spencer) anywhere on the floor where he puts us in a situation where he’s under control and he can help us win a possession, not a game, a possession. When Chris Bass is playing like he’s playing, I have no problem moving Bo over to the two spot. The key in all this is Bo is going to run our team, and when he’s on the floor he’s helping Chris (Bass) like Garret Temple helped Bo last year. Aaron Dotson has got to come at a faster rate and Zach Kinsley has to continue to improve because it’s a long year. Tasmin (Mitchell) and Bo know that 35 minutes or more every game. They’re going to have to play through a lot of conditioning.”
On the different lineup looks ...
“It’s early, and for me nothing is etched in stone. Chris Bass came off the bench and gave us great energy and made good decisions. Dennis Harris came off the bench and did a very, very good job. For me, I can see they had uncontested, open looks because of Monroe’s pressure left the back row open. Indiana State isn’t going to let us run up and down; they’re going to contest everything and they’re going to force us to make decisions. These combinations are going to change from game to game.”
UL-MONROE QUOTES
Head Coach Orlando Early
Opening Statement ...
“We were just overwhelmed by the atmosphere and their team and their defensive pressure. Our guys, the term ‘not being ready to play’ is not the right term to use, it was more shell-shocked. We were excited about the opportunity to be in here. We have a lot of in-state kids that were trying to compete and make plays but they were pressing. That is the right word, they were pressing.”
On the slow start ...
“Like I said I think we were pressing from the start. It was just a little nervousness and just being anxious to get going with the first game of the year and the opportunity to come back to LSU, the flagship school in the state. We were just a little shell-shocked.”
On losing the rebounding battle ...
“I thought we rebounded the ball decent but we didn’t rebound the ball well enough. They out-rebounded us by ten and Storm Warren had six offensive rebounds. We have to be able to box people off the glass. We don’t want to get beat by ten off the glass to anybody. I thought Tony Hooper and Tommie Sykes rebounded the ball pretty well but we have to rebound the ball as a team.”
On how they can move on ...
“We didn’t have a rhythm or continuity because our guys have been out week sick so we couldn’t really have a good practice. One thing that we have to do is we have to get out on Saturday and get a rhythm going but we have to be smart as well because we have a game Sunday and a game Tuesday.”
