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  Saturday, Jan. 29 3:00pm ET
Tigers give 'Cats a good, Swift kick
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Stromile Swift hadn't had that much fun since he was the most dominating schoolboy in Louisiana basketball.

Swift, showing the game that made him Mr. Basketball in the state during his high school career, had 29 points and nine rebounds Saturday as LSU trounced Arizona 86-60.

Luke Walton
Luke Walton and his Arizona teammates were pinned into a corner by LSU.
"I can't explain how much fun this was," Swift said. "I can't tell you what a thrill it was to see the fans get so worked up and watch the scoreboard."

The victory over the Wildcats (No. 4 ESPN/USA Today, No. 5 AP) was LSU's second over a ranked team this season, and it sent the capacity crowd onto the court chanting, "LSU! LSU!"

Tigers players jumped onto courtside reporters' and officials' desks, dancing and leading the cheers.

The 26-point defeat was the worst for coach Lute Olson in 17 years at Arizona, topping a 25-point loss to Utah in the NCAA tournament in 1998.

"They beat us every way you can," Olson said. "They played harder collectively. Their inside people were just too much for our inside people. They got offensive rebounds and dunked them and we got offensive rebounds and got them blocked. Stromile was a totally dominant player on the court and Jabari Smith played very well, too."

LSU (16-3) opened the season with 13 straight victories, including 81-55 over then-No. 15 Oklahoma State.

Swift, who scored 21 points against Arizona as a freshman last year, was 13-of-18 and played aggressive defense with four blocks and three steals.

"We didn't hit a shot and a good part of that was probably because of the job they did defensively," Olson said. "We just could not deal with Swift."

The Tigers opened the second half with a 16-6 run for a 53-27 lead over the Wildcats (17-4).

Smith, LSU's other big man, combined with Swift to dominate under the basket. Smith had 15 points, six rebounds and four assists. Brian Beshara and Lamont Roland each scored 11 for LSU.

"It was so much fun, I can't even say," Smith said. "Watching Stromile do the things he did and his emotions and how loud the arena got. Looking at all my teammates felt so good. We played hard, played good defense and responded to the challenge."

It was the last non-conference game for both schools in the regular season, and the final of four straight road games for the Wildcats.

Arizona was coming off its best shooting performance of the season, hitting 56 percent against Arizona State. But it shot just 34 percent for the game and made just 7-of-26 in the first half for a woeful 27 percent.

Arizona's freshman backcourt of Gilbert Arenas and Jason Gardner, who combined for 40 points on 15-of-21 shooting against Arizona State, were held to 17 points, 11 for Arenas, six for Gardner.

Michael Wright led Arizona with 14 points, Luke Walton had 13 and Loren Woods had 12 points and 11 rebounds.

"They were double- and triple-teaming us in the lane," Woods said. "We were getting open shots but we didn't get any second shots."

The Wildcats led twice early in the game. They took a 14-11 edge when Woods followed a basket with two free throws with 13:01 left. They moved back in front 17-15 of Walton's 3-pointer with 10:53 left.

 


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