Thornton adds toughness

• By GARY LANEY
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Jan 13, 2009 - UPDATED: 6:17 a.m.

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With LSU trying to overtake Alabama early in the second half Sunday at Tuscaloosa, Ala., Marcus Thornton was trying to do his part by guarding Alabama’s Senario Hillman.

That’s when everything got foggy for Thornton.

“I’m coming off a screen — and I don’t think it was on purpose — but he caught me,” said Thornton, who evidently got whacked pretty good in the face by Hillman, or maybe the player setting a screen on Thornton. “Bo (Spencer) said he caught me with a hand, but it felt like it got me with an elbow.”

At any rate, Thornton was visibly out of it for a couple of moments, reeling from the blow. He doubled over a couple of times, wincing, while the action was still going on.

“I was kind of dizzy,” Thornton said. “The next possession we took a timeout and I got back into the swing of things.”

He eventually came out of the game, for a minute at least, but not because of an injury. He finished with 21 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals in 39 minutes of the 65-59 loss to the Crimson Tide.

Meet the Marcus Thornton of 2009. The Thornton you may remember from last season was a 6-foot-4 shooting guard known as a scorer. Maybe that perception wasn’t completely fair because he also had a good rebounding season.

But this year, there seems to be a certain toughness to his 5.2 rebounds a game, his 25 steals, often thefts that come right when LSU needs one, and his willingness to play a more rugged style of basketball and thrive with it.

“That comes from being mature in the game and being physically tough,” Thornton said. “That’s every practice, every game. Me, as a player, I try to take heed of that and play my heart out every game.”

Against Alabama, there was certainly evidence of it.

With Tasmin Mitchell and Garrett Temple both saddled with foul trouble for much of the first half, Thornton scored 13 of LSU’s 24 first-half points and the Tigers stayed within 30-24 at halftime.

And, in one late first-half sequence, he showed his hustle when, after an Alabama steal appeared to be leading to a fast-break the other way, Thornton darted back and came from nowhere to intercept a pass, keeping the Crimson Tide from extending what was already a six-point lead.

So here is Thornton, rebounding, hustling and playing defense. And he’s still the team’s leading scorer at 18.5 ppg, the role he’s always enjoyed, both at Tara High School and as a 27 points per game scorer at Kilgore College in Texas before his arrival at LSU.