BATON ROUGE — A long trip home from the Arizona desert put the LSU men’s basketball team face-to-face with a stark reality that there is another game to play Friday night at 7 p.m. against Nicholls State at the Maravich Assembly Center.
The game is the one thing keeping the Tigers from thinking too much about Christmas vacation as the 6-1 team tries to rebound from Wednesday night’s road loss at Arizona, 88-75.
Tickets for the game will be on sale at the LSU Athletic Ticket Office from noon until 4 p.m. on Friday. Tickets will go on sale at the Assembly Center for $10 beginning at 5 p.m. Tickets are also available on the Internet at www.lsusports.net.
The contest will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Network (Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) and on the Internet at There will be no live television coverage for the game, but it will be shown in the Baton Rouge area on a one-day tape delay on KTTE-TV, Channel 11, at 1 and 7 p.m.
LSU battled the nationally-ranked Wildcats for nearly 30 minutes, holding as much as a seven-point lead during the period, before Arizona was able to deliver the knockout punch Wednesday night at the McKale Center. Ronald Dupree had 21 points to lead LSU, while Torris Bright set an LSU record with 5-for-5 three-point shooting in scoring 20 points.
The Tigers returned to Baton Rouge about 2:30 p.m. Thursday afternoon and quickly went into a meeting to look at the tape of the Arizona game and get a scouting report on Nicholls State in preparation for the game.
The Colonels from Thibodaux are 3-4 on the year, 1-0 in the Southland Conference. Rickey Broussard‘s team is coming off a 79-66 win over Louisiana-Monroe in its last start on Dec. 18. Arthur Haralson leads the Colonels, averaging 18.7 points per game and 6.0 rebounds per game.
Chris Bacon, who had 24 against ULM in the win, and Marlon Green, both average 14 points per contest.
LSU is 8-0 in the series against the Colonels and this will be the second straight year the two teams will play the game right before Christmas. Last year, LSU was a 91-74 winner as Torris Bright had 20 points to lead LSU. Both teams shot over 50 percent in that contest a year ago.
Following the game, the LSU players will be given two days off before reporting back to practice at 7 p.m. on Christmas night. The team will work out late in the morning on the 26th, before busing to New Orleans for final preparations for the Dec. 28 Sugar Bowl Classic contest at the New Orleans Arena against Oregon State.