LSU Basketball Gets Turnovers Under Control in Blowout 77-50 Win Over UMBC

Tigers commit season low 15 turnovers in route of Retrievers

LSU turned in its most dominant performance of the season by locking in on defense and combating the effort with its fewest turnovers of the season, defeating UMBC 77-50 as a result.

Coming into Tuesday, LSU was second to last in turnovers in the country, combining for 51 in its last two games alone. After turning the ball over on two of its first three possessions, it looked like the game was headed towards a similar outcome.

Those turnover issues would widely be resolved as the Tigers committed 15 total for the entire game and held the Retrievers to 32 % shooting for the game.

“We had three turnovers at the first media break. We had six turnovers in the first half and one of them was when we had two guys fighting for a rebound, which I can live with that turnover," coach Will Wade said. "The other one was the offensive foul on (Trendon) Watford where the guy came to his back. In the second half, we had some inexperienced guys in there and we didn’t do some things we needed to do. Like I said, I thought we made progress."

“Obviously in the last two games we turned it over at a high rate, so tonight was progress," freshman Trendon Watford said. "We cut it from 25 to 15 but some of them were just unfortunate plays like charges and things like that. We have to keep cleaning that up and move forward and we will feel pretty good."

It looked for the first seven minutes as if this game would wind up finishing with a soccer score as the Tigers missed their first nine field goals. To make up for the slow start from the field, LSU used the free throw line to its advantage, going 7-of-9 in the first half and finishing the game with 14 makes to 16 attempted free throws from UMBC a winning formula for LSU under Wade.

That drought would come to an abrupt end as LSU would close the half by making 15 of its next 20 field goals en route to a 34-12 run over the final 12:41, fueled by good defensive possessions leading to easy buckets in transition.

The Tigers forced eight first half UMBC turnovers, turning them into 16 points on the offensive end of the floor to take a 39-23 lead into the half.

Stopping 5-foot-2 UMBC point guard Darnell Rogers was a point of emphasis for the team, Wade said Monday and the team was able to shut Rogers down for the entirety of the first half.

Rogers, who quickly became a student section favorite, was able to get into a groove in the second half but not enough to make a dent in the LSU lead.

The defense continued to be stellar as the LSU lead never dipped below 16 in the second half. As a result, the Tigers were able to rest starters Skylar Mays, Javonte Smart and Emmitt Williams for most of the second half, something Wade said is crucial with such an important stretch of games coming up.

"We've got two big games coming up so that couldn't have worked out any better for us," Wade said. "To get Bishop the confidence, to get him out there playing, to be able to rest Javonte and Skylar, who have been playing major major minutes, it was huge."

Offensively for LSU, it was a team effort as junior college transfer Charles Manning led the way with 16 points while five other players had at nine points or more. Wade also thought the play of freshman James Bishop was huge as Bishop came off the bench and dropped nine points with four assists in 19 minutes. 

Building that guard depth will be key for the Tigers moving forward as asking Mays and Smart to play 35 minutes a game could cause trouble down the stretch.

Watford added 12 points with 12 boards, the first career double-double for the freshman and sophomore Darius Days also had his second consecutive double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Up next, the Tigers will travel to Jamaica on Wednesday for a tournament where the team will face No. 17 Utah State and Rhode Island.