"It was a tale of two halves." /Glenn Guilbeau/USA Today Network
BATON ROUGE — LSU won its first home Southeastern Conference basketball game of the season and snapped a three-game losing streak in the process with a 77-65 victory over Texas A&M Tuesday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The Tigers (12-7, 3-4 SEC) were 0-3 in the league at home. The Aggies (13-7, 2-6 SEC) lost their fourth SEC road game of the season in four tries.
Senior forward Duop Reath led LSU with 21 points and added eight rebounds. Freshman point guard Tremont Waters scored 15 with nine assists for the Tigers, and forward Aaron Epps and guard Daryl Edwards each scored 12.
Texas A&M was down three starters when it lost to LSU, 69-68, on Jan. 6 in College Station, Texas. All three — forward Robert Williams of the Shreveport area and guards Admon Gilder and Duane Wilson — started Tuesday night against the Tigers and came in averaging a combined 31 points.
But the trio did not add up to very much for the Aggies in the first half as LSU took a whopping, 41-26 lead. The Tigers maintained a double-digit lead throughout the second half.
Williams, a sophomore from North Caddo High, ended up scoring 21 for Texas A&M with a game-high 15 rebounds. Center Tyler Davis added 12 with 12 rebounds. Jay Jay Chandler scored 10. Gilder finished with all of three points, and Wilson had two.
Reath led all scorers with 12 points in the first half and had four rebounds.
The Tigers travel to No. 19 Auburn (17-2, 5-1 SEC) for a 5 p.m. game Saturday.