LSU men’s basketball beat Northwestern State 77-53 at home. | LSU

Corey Chest frolicked in the middle of the field.

The LSU men’s basketball forward caught a pass in transition on the first play of the second half. Instead of forcing a contested layup, he kicked it to open shooter Cam Carter, who squirted the 3-pointer into the right corner.

After another defensive stop, LSU’s Carter controlled the fastbreak opportunity and returned the favor by throwing an alley-oop pass to Chest, who stuck it in with two hands to erupt the Pete Maravich Assembly Center crowd.

The high-energy start to the second half is what propelled LSU to beat Northwestern State 77-53 on Friday.

Jordan Sears had 18 points and made six 3-pointers for LSU (6-1). Cam Carter, who was scoreless in the first half, finished with 15 points.

Chest made his second straight appearance in the starting lineup for the Tigers and finished with nine points, 10 rebounds and five blocks.

Chest’s engine in attack and defense was the most exciting part of the Tigers’ victory. He never stopped moving, whether it was for rebounds, dunks or layups. His activity energized his teammates, who tried to match his energy.

“Corey is a motor guy, so that energy that everybody feeds off of, especially when we get out in transition,” Sears said. “We play LSU basketball, a really fast pace, that’s what we want to do.”

Chest’s presence was felt as early as the first possession of the game. After Northwestern State (2-5) gained the lead, the redshirt freshman blocked the shot of an unsuspecting cutter. This led to a Sears deep 3 from the right wing.

LSU coach Matt McMahon said Chest’s activity level as a weak-side defender (the side opposite the ball) was “fantastic” and that he “really fits into a good role for our team.”

Chest said he used his redshirt season to improve his game.

“When I took that time off, I was constantly in the gym, day in and day out, trying to get better and compete in the SEC,” Chest said.

While the Tigers clearly outplayed Northwestern State overall, it struggled at first. It started with its 3-point shooting, where they came up empty more times than not. They started 1 of 9 from the 3-point line.

Poor shooting in the first half, 9 of 26 from the field, was the prominent reason it trailed 26-25 at halftime. They had a season low in first half points, scoring 25 first half points against Central Florida. Out of LSU’s four home games, all against middling opponents, it was the third time they scored less than 30 in the first 20 minutes.

LSU’s cold scoring was largely due to its zero fastbreak points up to that point. Its efforts to push the tempo were noticeable, but it just never turned into scores as Northwestern’s defense recovered in transition.

“I didn’t think we were very aggressive as a whole on the offensive side of the ball,” McMahon said. “We didn’t create many advantages in the first half. I think we forced 12 turnovers in the first half and had zero transition points, which is crazy.”

Reed was the first offensive player to be comfortable as he scored six of LSU’s first nine points. He dug in under the hoop and seemed too physical to stop within five feet of the hoop. Reed, along with Sears, had nine first-half points.

Northwestern State’s Jon Sanders, who averaged 13.8 points per game game, had 11 points at halftime.

The turnaround for LSU started from the exact moment the second half began with the two fast break scores from Carter and Chest.

The team never let up as it found the juice it needed to score in transition, scoring 13 points in that stretch.

Carter, who entered the contest ranked 10th in scoring in the Southeastern Conference with 17 points per game. match, was the biggest advantage of the uptempo game.

He aggressively blew by defenders full court for rim attacks while also making catch-and-shoot 3-pointers from all over the arc.

The last time LSU won six of its first seven games and played at least two power-conference teams in that stretch was the 2021-22 season, when it started the year 12-0.

Daimion Collins missed his second straight game after injuring his shoulder against Pittsburgh on Nov. 22. McMahon said tests are “encouraging” and the team expects him to return.

LSU’s next game is against Florida State on Tuesday at the PMAC.