BATON ROUGE, La. -- Marcus Thornton scored 24 points to lead
LSU to a 68-41 victory against Nicholls State in a non-conference
game Wednesday night.
Thornton, who was 9-of-14 from the field, scored 17 of his
points in the second half when the Tigers (4-2) expanded their
31-19 halftime lead. Thornton made four 3-pointers.
Chris Johnson added 16 for LSU and Bo Spencer had 11, including
three from 3-point range.
The 41 points were the fewest scored by the Colonels in a game
this season.
Ryan Bathie led Nicholls State with 11 points, while Michael
Czepil had 10. The Colonels (1-6) made just 30 percent of their
field goal attempts.
The Tigers took control of the game with a 16-5 run during the
middle of the opening half. With the score tied at 6, LSU got
baskets from Terry Martin and Thornton. Spencer and Garrett Green
then scored all but two of the final 12 points in the run. Spencer
made a pair of 3-pointers, while Green sank a pair of field goals.
Spencer's second 3-pointer gave the Tigers a 22-11 lead.
Nicholls State cut its deficit to five points, but LSU scored
the final seven points of the half to build its 12-point lead.
The Colonels pulled within nine points at 36-27 early in the
second half but the Tigers went on a 16-3 run to take a 22-point
advantage.