No. 4 Kentucky handles LSU easily winning 81-55

No. 4 Kentucky beats LSU 81-55

BATON ROUGE, La. — Freshman DeMarcus Cousins had 19 points and 13 rebounds for his sixth consecutive double-double and No. 4 Kentucky cruised past LSU 81-55 on Saturday.

Cousins, who played only 20 minutes, is eighth in the country in doubles-doubles with 14 and 24th in the nation in rebounding.

The Wildcats (22-1, 7-1 Southeastern Conference) trailed 6-1 until John Wall hit a jumper 4:29 into the game. They needed only 3 minutes to erase LSU’s lead, scoring 41 of the next 49 points to take a 42-14 halftime lead.

Patrick Patterson had 16 points for Kentucky and Eric Bledsoe added 10. The Tigers limited Wall, the star freshman, to season-low six points on 2-of-9 shooting. It marked only the second time that Wall failed to reach double figures this season.

LSU (9-14, 0-9) shot less than 19 percent from the field in the first half and finished at 26.7 percent overall (21 of 66).

Bo Spencer led LSU with 25 points, 19 in the second half, but he had seven turnovers. Tasmin Mitchell added 10 points for the Tigers.

The margin of defeat matched LSU’s biggest of the season. LSU lost to Connecticut by the same score in the NIT Season Tipoff in November.

LSU, which won the conference last season, is still searching for its first league victory in this one.

The Tigers played scrappy defense, but had a hard time slowing down the much bigger and faster Wildcats, who average 82.4 points a game. Kentucky outscored LSU 34-14 in the paint and allowed the Tigers no second-chance or fast-break points.

Kentucky outrebounded LSU 53-31.

The Wildcats led by as many as 33 points, taking control and allowing coach John Calipari to play most of his bench, which provided 22 points.