LSU cruises by Nicholls State

Alabama turns back Middle Tennesse 72-61; Texas A & amp;M triumphs 94-60.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BATON ROUGE, La. -- Senior Darnell Lazare scored 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds Friday to record his first double-double and No. 7 LSU opened its season with a 96-42 win over Nicholls State.
Lazare was 4-of-6 from the field. Three other Tigers scored in double figures. Glen Davis and Garrett Temple each had 16 points, while Tasmin Mitchell added 14. Davis, who also had eight rebounds and four assists, was 4-of-5 from the field and 7-of-8 at the foul line.
Nicholls State's Adonis Gray, who had averaged 21.5 points in the first four games, was held to 10 points. The Colonels (0-5) had no other player with more than seven.
Nicholls State stayed with the Tigers for about the first 10 minutes of the game.
A basket by Aaron Scott left the Colonels behind 20-13 with 10:05 remaining. LSU then pulled away with a 24-2 run.
Temple scored 11 of his 16 first-half points during that stretch.
No. 10 Alabama 71, Middle Tennessee 62
CHARLOTTE AMALIE, U.S. Virgin Islands -- Ronald Steele had 20 points and four assists to lead Alabama past Middle Tennessee State in the opening round of the Paradise Jam.
Richard Hendrix added 16 points and eight rebounds for Alabama (2-0), and Alonzo Gee had 12 points and six rebounds.
Tim Blue scored 13 points and grabbed six rebounds to lead the Blue Raiders (1-2).
No. 12 Texas A & amp;M 94, Lamar 60
COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Joseph Jones scored 19 points to lead Texas A & amp;M.
Josh Carter had 14 points and Dominique Kirk and Antanas Kavaliauskas added 12 each for Texas A & amp;M (2-0), which jumped out to a 30-5 lead.
A & amp;M had runs of 11-0 to start the game, and 14-2 to pull away in the game's first 10 minutes.
James Davis scored 14 points for Lamar, which shot only 28 percent for the game.
Davis had eight points in the last 3 minutes of the second half to cut into the Aggies' lead.
Texas A & amp;M led 57-23 at halftime.
No. 19 Texas 77, St. John's 76
NEW YORK -- Kevin Durant had 29 points and fellow freshman D.J. Augustin added 17 to lead Texas over St. John's in the third-place game of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.
The Longhorns (3-1) were able to win a close one after losing 63-61 to Michigan State in the semifinals on a driving basket by Drew Neitzel with 2.4 seconds to play. This time, they weren't assured of the win until Anthony Mason Jr.'s long 3-point attempt with 1 second left bounced off the rim.
Avery Patterson had 22 points for St. John's (2-2) and was 6-for-11 from 3-point range.
No. 21 Connecticut 88, Central Arkansas 59
HARTFORD, Conn. -- Connecticut freshman Jerome Dyson scored 20 points in the opening round of the Hispanic College Fund Classic.
The Huskies (2-0) used a smothering man-to-man defense and speedy transition game to run away from the Bears (1-2), a team playing its first season in Division I.
Jeff Adrien had 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Huskies, who had five players score in double figures. Stanley Robinson finished with 13 points, Marcus Johnson 10 and A.J. Price had 12 points and eight assists.
No. 22 Kentucky 79, Mississippi Valley State 56
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Ramel Bradley had a career-high 21 points and Kentucky started with a 15-0 run en route to defeating Mississippi Valley State in Tubby Smith's 500th game as a college coach.
Bradley made 8 of 11 attempts from the field and 5 of 7 from 3-point range and Randolph Morris had 18 points and nine rebounds for Kentucky (2-0).
Smith, now in his 16th year as a head coach and 10th at Kentucky, improved to 367-133.
Larry Cox led the Delta (0-3) Devils with 17 points.
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