BATON ROUGE, La. -- Louisiana State, led by sophomore guard Ronnie Henderson, opened the second half by outscoring UMBC 33-11 and cruised to an 88-67 nonconference victory over the Retrievers before 8,916 last night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
UMBC (1-7), which led briefly in the first half and trailed by just two points at halftime, was led by Artie Walker, who came off the bench to score 14 points, 11 in the second half.
Marc Lay, who scored 12 in the first half, and Tony Thompson scored 15 apiece. Matt Skalsky added 10.
Henderson scored 34 points for LSU (6-3), including seven three-pointers, three in the first nine minutes of the second half. Randy Livingston added 13 points and 12 assists. Landers Nolley and Roman Rubchenko scored 12 apiece for the Tigers.
UMBC hit 13 three-pointers to tie its school record.
"We just played one half, that's it," said UMBC coach Earl Hawkins. "I'm not very happy with our performance in the second half. We didn't fill the passing lanes, made too many mental mistakes. In the first half, we get behind, fight back. We put ourselves in a position to win and then just had a mental lapse. We've got to play for 40 minutes."
UMBC battled back from a 10-point first-half deficit, led by as many as three on three occasions, but went to halftime down by 38-36.
UMBC committed 13 first-half turnovers, LSU 16.
The teams traded turnovers and three-pointers in the first five minutes as LSU took a 12-6 lead on four three-pointers by the Tigers and two by UMBC's Lay.
LSU built the lead to 16-6, saw UMBC close to 16-13, but rebuilt the advantage to 23-12.
The Tigers led 25-16 with 8:32 to halftime when LSU coach Dale Brown suddenly called for a 20-second timeout, which the Southeastern Conference is experimenting with this season.
The break, however, appeared to spark the Retrievers, who went on a 14-2 run.
"I thought the first half we were headed for an LSU turnover record," Brown said. "Instead, we ended up with the LSU record for most three-pointers [also 13]. At times, it doesn't seem like we can even pass the ball to each other."
UMBC -- Lay 5-14 0-0 15, Dressler 0-2 0-0 0, Fleury 0-2 2-4 2, Hayes 4-10 0-2 8, T. Thompson 5-15 3-4 15, Wyatt 0-4 0-0 0, Skalsky 4-7 0-0 10, C. Thompson 0-0 0-0 0, Milosevic 0-3 1-2 1, Walker 6-8 0-0 16. Totals 24-65 6-12 67.
LSU -- Nolley 5-9 0-2 12, Rubchenko 4-10 2-2 12, Scott 0-0 0-2 0, Henderson 13-19 1-2 34, Livingston 4-8 4-5 13, Bosley 0-0 0-0 0, Palfi 2-2 0-0 5, Thomas 0-0 0-0 0, Ceasar 1-6 0-1 2, Johnson 0-0 0-0 0, Mutavdzic 4-6 2-3 10. Totals 33-60 9-17 88.
Halftime--LSU 38-36. 3-point goals--M 13-35 (Lay 5-12, Walker 4-6, Skalsky 2-3, T. Thompson 2-8, Hayes 0-2, Milosevic 0-2, Wyatt 0-2); L 13-25 (Henderson 7-11, Rubchenko 2-2, Nolley 2-6, Palfi 1-1, Livingston 1-2, Ceasar 0-3). Rebounds--M 35 (Thompson 11); L 39 (Rubchenko 11). Assists--M 15 (Lay 5); L 28 (Livingston 12). Total fouls--M 17; L 17. Fouled out--None. Technicals--None. A--8,916.