BATON ROUGE, La. - Indiana State held home-standing LSU to just over 34 percent shooting from the field, including blanking the Tigers from 3-point range, but a strong rebounding advantage propelled LSU to a 56-45 victory in front of an announced crowd of 8,113 fans at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

LSU advances to the second round of the Dick's Sporting Goods NIT Season Tipoff to take on Western Kentucky on Tuesday night. The Sycamores will play Milwaukee before the LSU/Western Kentucky game beginning at 5:30 p.m. (ET).

LSU was just 23-of-67 from the floor in the game and ISU held them without a 3-point basket as the Tigers missed all 15 of their shots from long range. The Sycamores were able to hit only 13-of-43 shots from the field (30.2 percent) themselves, but were able to hit just three 3-pointers.

The Tigers main advantage was their play inside as they outscored the Sycamores by a 38-12 margin in the paint and held a 50-28 advantage on the boards. LSU pulled down 24 offensive rebounds in the contest and converted them into 26 second chance points. ISU was only able to grab six offensive rebounds and scored nine second chance points.

The Sycamores opened the second half in much the same way that they opened the game with four consecutive free throws, two by Brant Leitnaker and two more by Jake Kelly to close the 24-19 halftime gap down to 26-23.

After a Rashad Reed free throw with 15:13 left in the game, the Sycamores' next score would come on a jumper by Koang Duluony at the 10:57 mark to stem the tide as ISU found themselves down 36-28.

Down 38-28, Lathan connected on an open look to cut the lead down to 38-31 with 9:15 left.

The offense ran dry until there was just under seven minutes left when a lay-up by Harry Marshall cut the LSU lead down to 44-33. A jumper by Jordan Printy and free throws by Dwayne Lathan were all part of 6-0 run that made it 44-37 with 5:13 left.

A second chance layup by Warren Storm stretch the Tiger lead out to 46-37 and Rashad Reed answered to make it 46-40 with 4:31 to go. A collision under the basket on the Tigers' ensuring possession yielded a foul on Kelly and Tasmin Mitchell converted the foul shots to make it 48-40. A pair of free throws by Lathan cut the lead down to 48-42 with just under four minutes left but that would be as close as Indiana State would get as LSU pulled away late for a 56-45 victory.

Indiana State scored the games' first six points, the first four by Jake Kelly, who opened play with a pair of free throws to stretch his early season mark at the charity stripe to a perfect 12-of-12. Kelly hit another bucket at the 16:22 mark and then Koang Doluony hit a long two to make it 6-0 in favor of the Sycamores.

LSU was held scoreless until Storm Warren hit a pair of free throws with 14:57 left before intermission and were held without a bucket until the 13:24 mark when Eddie Ludwig connected on a jumper to make the score 6-4.

Harry Marshall got into the scoring business with 8:40 left in the first half when he gave the Sycamores a 10-8 advantage as the Sycamore defense held ISU in the contest despute going nearly four minutes without a field goal.

Josh Crawford and Rashad Reed each a pair of free throws to give ISU a 14-12 advantage, but the Sycamores' next field goal following the Marshall basket would not come until the 2:55 mark on a driving lay-up by Kelly. His bucket made it 20-16 in favor of LSU and after a dunk put back by LSU's Warren, Marshall scored the Sycamores' final points of the first half to make the score 22-19.

The Tigers added a second chance put back by Garrett Green with just over a minute left to give them a 24-19 lead and last second 3-pointer by Marshall glanced off the rim.

Lathan, in a return to his home state of Louisiana scored 12 points, all in the second half of play. Kelly added eight as he made his first four free throws of the game and his first 14 of the year before missing the front end of an one-and-one opportunity in the second half.

ISU was paced on the boards by Carl Richard who pulled down five.

The Sycamores forced 10 turnovers in the contest and turned the ball over 12 times. Both teams scored 10 points off of the other team's miscues in the contest.

Warren recorded a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds while Bo Spencer was limited to just 10 points despite taking 20 shots from the field. Dennis Harris came off the bench to score 10 points as well.

The Sycamores return to action on Tuesday when the face off against Milwaukee on the second day of play in the Dick's Sporting Goods NIT Season Tipoff. Tip-off is slated for 5:30 p.m. (ET) and can be heard live locally on The Crock 92.7 FM as well as online at www.crock927.com.