BATON ROUGE - Antonio Blakeney scored a career-high 31 points, and LSU moved into sole possession of first place in the Southeastern Conference with an 88-77 victory over struggling Mississippi State on Saturday night.

Blakeney, a freshman whose previous single-game high was 22 points, hit 11 of 17 shots, including four 3-pointers. It was easily Blakeney's best outing against a team from a major conference and exactly what LSU (15-8, 8-2) expected when it recruited last season's Florida high school player of the year.

Keith Hornsby scored 25 points, while Ben Simmons added 16 points and nine rebounds.

Gavin Ware scored 14 for Mississippi State (9-13, 2-8), which led by as many as 14 points in the first half. But the Bulldogs trailed at halftime and struggled to keep pace after that.