Mike Williams III hits 6 3s, scores 20. hot-shooting LSU beats Northwestern State 96-55

BATON ROUGE, La. -- — Freshman Mike Williams III hit six 3-pointers and finished with 20 points, both season highs, Hunter Dean and Derek Fountain each had a double-double and hot-shooting LSU beat Northwestern State 96-55 Friday night.

Dean scored 11 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, Fountain added 10 points and a season-high 10 rebounds. Will Baker scored 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting for LSU (8-5). Jalen Cook added 13 points and Jordan Wright scored 10.

The Tigers shot a season-high 61% (36 of 59) from the field, made 11 of 21 (52%) from 3-point range and scored 29 points off 20 Northwestern State turnovers.

Chris Mubiru hit a 3-pointer and Chase Forte followed with a layup to give the Demons a 7-4 lead, but a steal by Fountain led to a layup by Dean to make it 9-8 with 13:32 left in the first half and LSU led the rest of the way.

Forte made a layup that trimmed Northwestern State's deficit to 23-18 with 8:03, but the Demons were 1-of-12 shooting as LSU scored 24 of the final 27 first-half points to take a 47-21 lead.

Forte and Jimel Lane lead Northwestern State (2-11) with nine points apiece. The Demons, who snapped a 10-game losing streak last time out with a win over NAIA Southern-New Orleans, are winless against NCAA-affiliated opponents this season.

LSU opens SEC play Jan. 6 at Texas A&M. Northwestern State plays at Lamar to kick off its Southland Conference slate on Jan. 6.

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