Updated December 6, 2006 6:42 AM

Tigers too much for Aggies

By RICHARD CROOME
Eagle Sports Writer

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AP Photo LSU's Glen Davis works his way through Texas A&M's Antanas Kavaliauskas, left, and Joseph Jones.

BATON ROUGE, La. - One by one, the Aggie big men tried to stop Glen "Big Baby" Davis. One by one, A&M's big men had to take a seat.

Davis scored 24 points, including a key basket late after it appeared the Aggies had come up with a turnover to lead No. 9 LSU to a 64-52 victory over No. 6 Texas A&M on Tuesday at the Maravich Center.

Davis scored 15 points in the second half, but it was the predicament he put the Aggies in in the first half that helped the 5-1 Tigers hand A&M its first loss in eight games.

Davis caused the first seven fouls by the Aggies. By the end of the half three of the A&M big men had three fouls, including leading scorer Joseph Jones, who took only two minutes to get into deep foul trouble.

"You can dominate a game without scoring a lot of points. When you are a real player you demand a double team, you demand people to make adjustments on how you play," A&M coach Billy Gillispie said. "If you really understand what is going on, Bryan Davis had three fouls in the first half, Joe Jones had three fouls in the first half and Marlon Pompey had three fouls in the first half. That is who was guarding [number] zero [Davis].

"That's what a player does."

With the Tigers up 31-30, Davis swished three jumpers and a shot from in close to give the Tigers a 40-32 lead, which later grew to 15 points before the Aggies made their one run late.

"I never said, 'Hey, I'm going to put it on my shoulders.'" Davis said of his early second-half run. "But that's my role for this team, to deliver when the deliverance is needed."

The Aggies closed to 58-52, with 2:30 remaining, and appeared to have forced a rare LSU mistake, but Davis came up with the ball and scored to end the Aggies' threat.

Davis, who at 6-foot-9 and 295 pounds is down 55 pounds from last year, then grabbed three of his game-high 10 rebounds in the final two minutes to end any hopes the Aggies had of avenging their 58-57 last year in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

"They really came to compete and we didn't match their intensity. That usually doesn't happen to us," Gillispie said. "We played like a deer in headlights. Hopefully it was first-game jitters on the road."

It was the Aggies' first road game, and though there was a good showing of A&M fans, most of the 9,274 in attendance made it the kind of environment the Aggies will have to face in Big 12 play.

Down 56-41 with a little over six minutes remaining the, Aggies made their best run of the game, starting with a dunk and free throw by Josh Carter. The foul was on Davis, his fourth.

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AP Photo Texas A&M's Antanas Kavaliauskas puts the ball up for two points in front of LSU's Magnum Rolle. Kavaliauskas led the Aggies with 18 points.

Jones, who had 12 points, then made a basket and two free throws. Antanas Kavaliauskas, who led the Aggies with 18, scored and Carter ended the run on an easy basket from Jones.

After a long timeout because of a shot clock discussion between the officials and the scorekeepers, the Aggies looked as if they had the ball, but Davis came up with his biggest play.

Tasmin Mitchell had 15 points and Garrett Temple added 11 for LSU.

Acie Law IV was held to four points on 1 of 11 shooting. The 6-5 Temple was mostly responsible for holding down Law, who came in averaging 15 points a game.

"He wasn't aggressive enough. He has to change," Gillispie said. "You have to do much more as a senior leader. He looked more scared than anybody on the court."

Temple took advantage of the Aggies having to watch Davis' every move early by canning two wide-open 3-pointers. The second put the Tigers up 9-6.

Kavaliauskas kept the Aggies close early, outmuscling 6-10, 205 pound Magnum Rolle for three early baskets inside.

After an intentional foul by Bryan Davis on LSU's Davis, the Tigers finished the half with an 8-2 run despite Davis missing both foul shots.

Mitchell was the main culprit, scoring on a follow, hitting a 3 and then hitting two free throws after Kavaliauskas picked up his second foul while battling for a rebound.

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NOTES - LSU played without 6-8 Darnell Lazare, who sprained his left ankle in the Tigers' 74-67 victory over Tulane. ... Josh Carter had to sit immediately after getting elbowed in the face. He was bleeding from the lip and finished the game with a bandage on his right cheek bone. ... LSU outrebounded A&M 35-24.