Baton Rouge, La ? LSU coach John Brady didn’t expect to have an easy time against Samford in the final game of the Hispanic College Fund Classic on Friday.

Brady’s assessment was correct as it took the 17th-ranked Tigers about 30 minutes to pull away in a 60-45 victory.

Glen Davis, selected the Most Valuable Player of the three-day tournament, scored a 19 points and finished with 64 in the Tigers’ three victories. He was 7-of-13 from the field and had nine rebounds against Samford.

“I knew that it was going to be a possession-by-possession game that would go all 40 minutes,” Brady said. “I thought as time went on we would be good enough athletically and defensively to slowly advance our lead, which is what we were able to do.”

In a slow-paced game, Tasmin Mitchell and Dameon Mason joined Davis in double figures. Mitchell had 13 points, while Mason finished with 11.

“We had to be slow and steady,” Davis said. “It was mentally tough because we had to sustain our intensity on defense for a long time.”

Randall Gulina, who made four three-pointers, led Samford (6-6) with 14 points. No other Bulldogs player scored more than nine points.

The Tigers (10-3) made five straight shots to start the second half and more than double their four-point halftime advantage. Mitchell had a pair of field goals and Garrett Temple hit a three-pointer as LSU took a 37-28 lead with 14:33 left in the game.

Samford closed the deficit to 38-36 on back-to-back three-pointers by Gulina and Travis Peterson.

No. 8 Alabama 80, Lipscomb 58

Tuscaloosa, Ala. – Alabama’s Jermareo Davidson reached 1,000 career points during the eighth-ranked Crimson Tide’s victory against Lipscomb.

Davidson’s 1,000th point came on a free throw, one of his 16 points. Alabama’s Mykal Riley led all scorers with 21, and teammate Richard Hendrix added 18 points and 11 rebounds.

After leading by just three points at halftime, Alabama (12-1) increased its lead to 10 with 8:52 to go in the second half. Lipscomb (8-5) whittled the lead to four points at 54-50 on a layup by Eddie Ard, but Alabama went on a 26-5 run to close out the game.

It was only the second game Lipscomb – coached by Tuscaloosa native Scott Sanderson, son of former Tide head coach Wimp Sanderson – has played against a ranked opponent.

No. 23 Air Force 78, Santa Clara 48

Santa Clara, Calif. – Jacob Burtschi scored 16 points with four three-pointers and Air Force hit a season-high 16 threes on the way to its ninth straight victory in the championship game of the Cable Car Classic on Friday night.

Andrew Henke, Matt McCraw and Nick Welch all added 13 points with three threes. The Falcons, who had one game with 15 threes and two others when they hit 13 this season, shot 16-for-30 from long range and five players had at least two. Burtschi also dished five assists and was named most valuable player of the classic.

The Falcons (13-1) put on an impressive show for the half-dozen NBA scouts in attendance.

Dan Nwaelele added 12 points with two threes, seven of his team’s 21 assists and five rebounds as Air Force snapped the Broncos’ five-game home winning streak.