LSU dominates Mississippi Valley State, Carter eclipses 1K points

BATON ROUGE, La. – Cam Carter surpassed 1,000 career points and dropped 23 points in LSU’s 110-45 victory over Mississippi Valley State Sunday night at the Maravich Center. The 65-point win is the program’s fifth-largest margin of victory in school record. 

LSU concludes its non-conference schedule with an 11-2 record and improves to 9-0 at home this season. The Tigers will enter SEC play with 11 or more wins for the third time in four seasons when they host Vanderbilt on Jan. 4, 2025, at the Maravich Center. Mississippi Valley State falls to 2-11 on the season.

For the third consecutive game, LSU separated itself with a massive run, this time a 35-2 run highlighted by a 17-0 burst to help build a lead as large as 42 points in the opening 20 minutes. The Tigers kept their foot on the gas in the second half, hitting season-high marks with 110 points on a 65.7 field goal percentage (46-of-70) and handing out 26 assists. LSU also had a season-low six turnovers and turned MVSU over 17 times, including 10 steals, which marks the Tigers’ fourth game with 10 or more steals this season.

LSU knocked down 12 3-pointers and are now 5-0 this season when hitting double-digit triples and held MVSU to a 32.7 field goal percentage (18-of-55) and 31.3 clip from 3-point range (5-of-16). The Tigers owned the glass 41-22 and outscored the Delta Devils 60-20.   

Carter, needing just 17 points entering Sunday’s matchup to get to 1,000, started hot with 16 points in the first seven minutes of the game, backed by four 3-pointers, and finished the game shooting 9-of-14 from the floor and 5-of-9 from deep for his sixth 20-point performance this season. Carter also matched his career-high of seven assists and had one block and one steal in the game.

Vyctorius Miller added a season-best 20 points, shooting 9-of-13 in the game, and scored 12 points in the second half. Miller filled the stats sheet with five rebounds, four assists, and two blocks – all season-highs. He also had one steal. Daimion Collins and Jordan Sears rounded out the top scorers for LSU with 15 points each. Collins matched Robert Miller III for a team-best six rebounds but led the way with five offensive boards. Collins also had two steals. Sears finished with three assists and two steals.  

Carter opened the game by scoring the Tigers’ first eight points, highlighted by a pair of triples, and threw an alley-oop to Corey Chest to get LSU out to a 10-4 lead. LSU went into the first media timeout with a 12-6 lead with 15:24 on the clock. Carter knocked down his third 3-pointer out of the media timeout, which sparked a 13-2 scoring run that featured Carter’s fourth 3-pointer of the game and forced MVSU to call a timeout with 12:31 remaining in the half, trailing 25-8. LSU’s run continued to expand to 24-2, including 16 unanswered points, and was ahead 36-8 with the game clock reading 7:44.

Overall, the Tigers pulled away with a 35-2 run and led 55-13 at the half. Although LSU’s offense was hot early, shooting 60.5 percent from the floor on 23-of-38 shooting, including seven 3-pointers, the defense held Mississippi Valley State to 6-of-24 shooting (25.0%), including 1-of-5 from behind-the-arc. LSU forced 11 turnovers in the opening stanza.   

Carter scored a layup for his 18th point of the game, pushing him past 1,000 career points early in the second half, and LSU led 69-22 at the 15:55 mark, outscoring MVSU 14-9 in the first four minutes. Although the Delta Devils played better offensively and had more energy, LSU held all the momentum and led 82-27 behind an 8-0 run when the visiting club signaled for time with 12:55 on the clock. The Tigers’ lead continued to balloon to 62 points at 91-29 behind seven consecutive points, and the Delta Devils could only pull within 59 points from that moment as LSU cruised to victory.

Alvin Stredic led Mississippi Valley State with eight points and three rebounds.

Postgame quotes

LSU head coach Matt McMahon

Opening Statement…
“Obviously pleased with the players’ performance today. I really challenged our team in a couple areas. We wanted to be single digits in our turnovers and single digits in offensive rebounds allowed. We only turned it over six times. I thought we really shared the ball and played unselfishly. It led to 26 assists. We only gave up four offensive rebounds. So all in all, I’m excited to get the win and to wrap non-conference play on a positive note. Now, we have a big week ahead. We’re getting ready for a really good Vanderbilt team in the SEC opener. It’s at home, Saturday afternoon, and we’re really hoping to have a great crowd here in the PMAC to start off SEC play.”

Thoughts on the team entering conference play…
“I think we had to pivot a little bit, beginning with the Florida State game with the Jalen Reed injury. That changed a few things. I think the guys have settled into the adjustments that had to be made there. I think we’re all, and I’m sure every coach is saying this, but we’re all searching for consistency. Putting together 40 minutes of consistent, high-level basketball. Obviously, I’d love to be sitting here talking to you at 13-0, but you look at the bad eight minute stretch against Pittsburgh and the bad eight minute stretch in the second half against SMU. That’s the difference. Nothing different than what we talked about before Christmas. We’re really trying to focus on offensive execution beginning with limiting our turnovers. I think that’s what hurt us with some of those empty trips. Then on the defensive end, the field goal percentage numbers defensively are top 15, top 20 in the country. It’s defensive rebounding that’s really hurt us at times this year. So we’re really trying to make a concerted effort to continue to improve on that aspect.”

LSU Player Cam Carter, Vyctorius Miller, Jordan Sears

Guard Cam Carter
On reaching the 1000 career point milestone…
“First I got to thank God, because, you know, it was all part of his plan with me coming home and being able to do this in front of my family, and you know after I’ll be able to celebrate it with them too.”

Guard Vyctorius Miller
On his career high 20 points…
“It feels good. I’ve always been getting like the 18’s, 19’s, 17’s [points], so finally getting over that little hump, it was good.”

On his passing performance this game…
When I was younger, I was always a point guard. So just coming on like different teams just being versatile, I could do both. I mean, it just showed out today

Guard Jordan Sears
On what they’ve learned about this year’s team so far…
“Just our resilience. We’re very resilient team. Our chemistry, we know how to figure things out you know especially when things go bad and I think that’s a big testament to just our practice and how we approach each day so I think for big picture, you know, just continue to lean on the things that we do best and hone in on those.”
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Mississippi Valley State Head Coach George Ivory
Opening Statement …
“I thought LSU came out and played some great basketball. They made a lot of shots and we never matched their intensity.”

On playing against LSU …
“It was great to come here and play a great coaching staff and a great basketball team. I think the biggest thing is that we have to match the intensity of the game that LSU played. They did a really great job.”

On player performance …
“I was really impressed with my freshman (Center Jonathan) Pace. I thought he came in and played great for me, especially being a freshman. He really came in and showed that he is ready to play, I was happy with that.”

*LSU press release