BATON ROUGE - Antonio Blakeney scored 23 points and LSU pulled away in the second half for an 84-65 non-conference victory over Houston on Tuesday.

Blakeney, whose fast-break layup with one second remaining gave the Tigers a 39-38 halftime advantage, scored 14 points and grabbed five of his eight rebounds in the second half. Blakeney made a season-high ten field goals.

Blakeney led an 8-0 run which enabled LSU (5-2) to take control of the game early in the second half. Blakeney made two baskets, one a 3-pointer, as the Tigers went ahead 53-42 with 15:50 to play. Houston (5-1) did not trail by fewer than nine points the rest of the way.

LSU shot 50 percent from the field (36-of-72), including 44 percent on 3-pointers (8-of-18).

But, the difference in the game was what happened on the backboards. The Tigers outrebounded the Cougars 46-28. LSU turned 20 offensive rebounds into 23 second-chance points.