BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Freshman Cameron Thomas, a former Oscar Smith High School standout from Chesapeake, had 23 points and 10 rebounds for the first double-double of his college career, and LSU overwhelmed short-handed Vanderbilt 83-68 on Tuesday night.
Trendon Watford scored 14 points with 13 rebounds and Darius Days had 13 with 10 boards for the Tigers (15-8, 10-6 Southeastern Conference). Thomas has scored 20-plus in nine straight games.
LSU scored the game’s first nine points and extended the lead to 17-3 with 13:24 left before halftime. Days scored nine of the Tigers’ first 17 points going 3-for-3 shooting from behind the arc. LSU led 46-24 at halftime and were never challenged after the break.
LSU outrebounded Vanderbilt 51-29.
Maxwell Evans scored 20 points for Vanderbilt (7-14, 3-13) and Jordan Wright 13. The Commodores were coming off a 75-70 upset over Mississippi on Saturday.
Vanderbilt was once again without the services of Dylan Disu (knee) and Scotty Pippen Jr. (hip). Disu and Pippen have each missed three straight games, and freshman Tyrin Lawrence has been out since Jan. 9 with a knee injury.
LSU plays at Missouri on Saturday. Vanderbilt travels to Cincinnati to face the Bearcats in a nonconference matchup on Thursday.
