The University of Mississippi Athletics
Poor Shooting Dooms Rebels on Road at LSU
2/23/2008 | Men's Basketball
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- With 27.1-percent shooting, Ole Miss never got on track Saturday in a 69-49 loss at LSU. David Huertas was the leading Rebel scorer with nine points to go with 10 rebounds. Eniel Polynice was also in double-digit boards with 12.
Marcus Thornton scored 17 points, and Anthony Randolph had 15 points and 11 rebounds for the Tigers (10-16, 3-9 Southeastern Conference). Chris Johnson had 12 points and 15 rebounds for LSU, while Terry Martin added 11 points.
Chris Warren scored eight for Ole Miss (18-8, 4-8). His 3-pointer with a little under eight minutes remaining in the game gave him 396 points on the season, a new freshman record for the Rebels. He surpassed Joe Harvell, who scored 395 points during his freshman season of 1989-90.
LSU put the game away with a 13-0 run midway through the second half.
Randolph started it when he scored inside while being fouled for a three-point play. Thornton then hit a pair of free throws, followed by his third 3-pointer of the game. Randolph scored again inside and Martin hit his second 3-pointer of the game, giving LSU a 54-35 lead with about eight minutes to go.
LSU led by as much as 18 points in the opening half.
Marcus Thornton hit a pair of 3-pointers early, outscoring Ole Miss 10-4 by himself as the Tigers jumped out to a 12-4 lead. Thornton had 12 points in the first half, and when Anthony Randolph converted a fast-break layup later in the period, LSU led 35-17.
Ole Miss responded with a 6-0 run to close out the opening 20 minutes. Huertas made four foul shots and Kenny Williams scored inside, cutting LSU's lead to 35-23 at halftime.
