Dein erstes Forum » ne, the Mercedes driver, still haunted by

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Antonio Blakeney scored 23 points as 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 and 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.Blakeney scored 14 points, hitting a season-high 10 field goals, and grabbed five of his eight rebounds in the second half.In the second half, we did a great job executing offensively, LSU coach Johnny Jones said. On the defensive end, we were getting stops. As the game continued, our guys did a tremendous job competing at a high level against one of the better teams we will face prior to conference.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 on the backboards, where the Tigers outrebounded the Cougars 46-28. LSU turned 20 offensive rebounds into 23 second-chance points.Winning the war on the boards and getting second-chance points was a focus, Blakeney said. Thats why coach (Jones) started sending me to the glass.Craig (Victor) and all the bigs were trying to get rebounds because we got beat on the boards in the Bahamas. We were just trying to correct our mistakes.Three LSU players besides Blakeney scored in double figures. Brandon Sampson had 16 points, all but two in the first half. Victor had 13 points and nine rebounds in his first start of the year. Aaron Epps, who was replaced by Victor in the lineup, had 11 points and seven rebounds.Rob Gray was the top scorer for Houston with 19 points. Damyean Dotson added 13 points, while Devin Davis had 12. The Cougars were badly beaten inside as they were outscored 46-26 in the paint.We didnt play very well at all in any area in the first half, but we had a chance to get the lead, Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. I didnt see a lot of pop tonight. Their size was a factor. We had three starters who did not get a defensive rebound. We have to be a rebounding team.BIG PICTURELSU: The Tigers, who lost two of three games last week at the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas, remained unbeaten at home with their fourth straight victory. LSU, which blocked nine shots and made seven steals, lost 105-98 in overtime at Houston last season.HOUSTON: The Cougars failed in their attempt to open a season 6-0 for just the fourth time in school history. Houston was badly beaten in its first true road game of the season.HUGE STAT NIGHTSLSUs Craig Victor was suspended from the team for the first three games of the season. Victor, a returning starter, came off the bench for all of the Tigers games in the Bahamas. Victor provided a spark in his first start -- not only with his 13 points and nine rebounds, but also with a career-high four steals. Meanwhile, freshman point guard Skylar Mays came off the bench to hand out 11 assists -- the most for a LSU player in Johnny Jones five seasons as coach.WHERE DID THE OFFENSE GOHouston was no match inside for LSU, but the Cougars also struggled mightily with their shooting. Coming into Tuesdays game, Houston was shooting 51 percent from the field, including 46 percent on 3-pointers. The Tigers held the Cougars to 40 percent from the field (21-of-52), including 29 percent on 3-pointers (5-of-17). Houston made just eight field goals in the second half.KEEPING LSU ALIVEThe Tigers never trailed by more than four points in the first half. Brandon Sampson was the player responsible for keeping LSU within striking distance of Houston. Sampson made five of his seven field goal attempts in the first half, including 4-of-6 on 3-pointers. Sampson made two of his 3-pointers in a 90-second stretch late in the first half when the Cougars had built leads of three and four points.UP NEXTLSU: The Tigers will take a two-week break for semester exams before returning for a home game against North Carolina Central on Dec. 13.HOUSTON: The Cougars play host to Prairie View on Saturday.Cheap SWell Bottles . -- There were so many positives from the Orlando Magics first victory of the season that it was hard for coach Jacque Vaughn to stop praising his players. Swell Water Bottle Clearance .S District Court against Major League Baseball, the Office of the Commissioner and his own union, the MLBPA. http://www.swellwaterbottleireland.com/ .S. -- Nikolaj Ehlers registered a hat trick for the third straight game and Jonathan Drouin had a goal and five assists as the Halifax Mooseheads hammered the host Cape Breton Screaming Eagles 10-1 on Tuesday in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. Black Swell Bottle Ireland .Y. -- Sabres defenceman Tyler Myers had no intention of changing his hard-hitting style before taking part in a disciplinary hearing for his illegal check to New Jersey forward Dainius Zubrus head. Swell Bottles Ireland . General manager Jarmo Kekalainen told Aaron Portzline of The Columbus Dispatch on Friday that he wants to see Gaboriks contributions go beyond the scoresheet before considering a long-term deal for the soon-to-be unrestricted free agent.Mercedes have revealed they were on the verge of instructing Lewis Hamilton to take an emergency pit-stop from the lead of the Mexican GP.Hamilton had badly flat-spotted his tyres, causing critical vibrations in his W07 car, at the start of the race when he out-braked himself into the first corner.I had a glazed right front so it locked up and I had no choice but to go across the grass, said Hamilton. After this the vibration was so big I was like there is no way I am going to make, Ill have to pit. That would have been my race over. According to Mercedes, the data from Hamiltons car was so alarming that they would have pitted him but for such an instruction having grievous - and potentially fatal - implications for Hamiltons fragile title dream.The vibration metrics were scary from the beginning, disclosed Toto Wolff. Simon [Cole, Mercedes track engineer] and I had a private conversation on the radio whether we should pit him for safety reasons.In any other race we would have pitted him and lost the race. We kept him out there in order to not throw away the championship for him. Both Mercedes run wide on the first lap of the Mexican Grand Prix, whilst Pascal Wehrleins race ends prematurely following a clash with Marcus Ericsson. Hamiltton himself had reported the vibrations over team radio when the Safety Car was deployed on the second lap of the race but was then, to Mercedes relief and apparent surprise, able to build up a substantial lead over Nico Rosberg when the race resumed.ddddddddddddEvery single lap, every single straight, we monitored the vibrations. Our team did a fantastic job of keeping that under control and then we pitted him a bit earlier because the vibration metrics were going sky high and a suspension failure could have easily happened. It was not a comfortable positions we found ourselves in, weighing up the championship versus a failure of the suspension, explained Wolff. While Red Bulls Daniel Ricciardo argued Hamilton should have been punished by the stewards for cutting the first-corner chicane, the Mercedes driver, still haunted by his victory-denying breakdown in Malaysia last month, admitted he was simply concerned about finishing the race.Honestly I didnt even think about the stewards, Hamilton told Sky Sports F1. I was more concerned with the flat spot that was just rattling my brain for 17 laps. I couldnt see the braking zone for Turn One. It was such a big vibration I was worried the suspension would break.But an unimpressed Ricciardo criticised the leniency of the stewards, complaining: I also didnt understand the start, how you can be leading, lock the brakes, go off and come out in front. I think he deserved the penalty; I think anyone who does that deserves a penalty. Dont miss The F1 Reports review of the Mexican GP at 8.30pm on Wednesday on Sky Sports F1. British GP2, and Renault development, driver Oliver Rowland join Natalie Pinkham and Marc Priestley.Also See:The Formula 1 Gossip ColumnWatch Sky F1 on NOW TV ' ' '