By Kristie Rieken

Associated Press

COLLEGE STATION — Tremont Waters scored a season-high 36 points with a career-best six three-pointers to give No. 19 LSU its 10th straight victory, 72-57 over Texas A&M on Wednesday night.

Waters was hot early, making five of seven three-point attempts and piling up 23 points by halftime. He cooled down a bit after the break, but did enough to lead LSU (17-3, 7-0 Southeastern Conference) to the victory on a night when much of the team struggled offensively.

Skylar Mays, who had a career-high 24 points in an overtime win against Missouri on Saturday, missed his first nine shots, including seven threes. He finally scored when he grabbed a steal and was all alone for a layup on the other end for his only points of the game with less than three minutes left to make it 70-55.

The Tigers led by three early in the second half before using a 10-2 run to make it 51-40 with 15 minutes to go. Naz Reid took over during that stretch, scoring seven points with a dunk and a three-point play.

A 5-0 run by Texas A&M, capped by a dunk from Wendell Mitchell, cut the lead to 56-51 midway through the second half, but Darius Days made a 3 to stretch LSU’s lead. That was the first 3 for the Tigers by anyone but Waters, after the rest of the team missed their first 13 attempts from beyond the arc.

Javonte Smart added a layup after a turnover by TJ Starks to push LSU’s lead to 10 once more, and the Aggies didn’t get close again.

Texas A&M (8-11, 1-6) got 21 points from Starks but lost for the fourth time in five games.

The Tigers led by seven with about 2 1/2 minutes left in the first half before the Aggies used an 8-2 run to cut the lead to 37-36 at halftime. Josh Nebo scored four points in that stretch, highlighted by a soaring, two-handed dunk.

BIG PICTURE

• LSU: The Tigers played well enough to extend their streak against the struggling Aggies, but will need to play better if they hope to keep it going with games against No. 22 Mississippi State, seventh-ranked Kentucky and top-ranked Tennessee remaining on their schedule.

• Texas A&M: After several blowout losses in conference play already, the Aggies competed better on Wednesday, but still have a long way to go to find success in the tough SEC.

UP NEXT

• LSU: Hosts Arkansas on Saturday.

• Texas A&M: Hosts No. 1 Tennessee on Saturday night.