LSU used some new looks and never seemed to fall under duress as it took down Grambling 78-57 Saturday afternoon in the PMAC.
Will Wade said prior to the game that he was planning of shaking up the starting lineup, and he did so in the post. Kavell Bigby-Williams and Darius Days got the start while Emmitt Williams and Naz Reid came off the bench.
That starting five looked solid as it opened the game on a 14-3 run that allowed LSU to play with a comfortable lead for the entirety of the game.
“We were up 14-3 to start the game, and I thought that was a big product of those guys (Days and Bigby-Williams),” said LSU head coach Will Wade. “Kavell runs the floor hard and blocks shots, and Days eats up a lot of rebounds. Those guys did a nice job for us.”
Bigby-Williams dominated the post defensively, swatting away a team-high nine blocks while pulling down five rebounds and scoring nine points.
The last time an LSU player tallied nine blocks was Tyrus Thomas who did it in 2009.
“I just try to play as hard as possible,” Bigby-Williams said. “If you play as hard as possible, good things usually happen. I played hard, I was able to get nine blocks and we were able to get the win.”
Days also showed the offensive efficiency LSU head coach Will Wade talked about prior the game, shooting 5 for 8 from the field for 13 points in his first career start. He also came down with nine rebounds, putting him a board shy of his first career double-double.
He said getting his first career start felt special, and he looks forward to contributing more moving forward, just as Wade said earlier this week.
“It’s a wild feeling, I’ll say that,” Days said. “In my book it’s very big. Grambling was pretty good. We have some other good teams in the future. We’ll see what happens in the future.”
Tremont Waters led LSU in scoring with 15 points. He also dished out five assists and pulled down four rebounds but once again struggled with ball security, turning it over six times for the third consecutive game.
Marlon Taylor, who Wade said he wanted to give more minutes to, started well, scoring a quick five points on a dunk and a 3-pointer on back-to-back possessions, but kind of disappeared as the game progressed, finishing with 8 points and just one rebound.
LSU dominated Grambling on the boards, bringing down 45 rebounds (16 offensive, 29 defensive) to Grambling’s 24.
A large factor contributing to that stat was Wade’s experimentation with the lineups throughout the game, as well as a new-look offense he expects to get cleaner moving forward as LSU turned the ball over 19 times.
At times, LSU played with Darius Days and Marlon Taylor on the wing with two forwards like Naz Reid and Kavell Bigby-Williams in the post, by far the largest lineup Wade has put on the floor this season.
Wade said it was a bit of experimentation on his part, but that it’s something he expects to use in the future.
“I thought it was good,” Wade said. “It was good to get Marlon out there and play him extended minutes. We played Marlon and Days together on the wing some. We’re going to play one of them on the wing some, but we were just tinkering with things today and seeing what we could do.
“We’re going to have to. We’re going to have to play a bit bigger (moving forward).”
LSU will take another week off before getting back in action next Sunday in the PMAC against Incarnate Word.
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