BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s basketball team, coming off a strong defensive effort, but a poor offensive showing Wednesday against Ole Miss, return home to the Maravich Assembly Center for a 7 p.m. Saturday contest against Auburn.
The two teams meet for the second time this season in the first of two home games in four days for the LSU Tigers. Tickets for the contest are on sale at $10 each beginning two hours prior to game time at the Maravich Assembly Center Box Office.
Tickets can also be purchased on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net. The game will be broadcast on radio on the LSU Sports Network (Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) and on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net. There is no live television for the contest, although the Pelican Sports Network will show a tape-delayed broadcast of the contest on Sunday at 1 and 7 p.m. on Cox Communications Channel 18.
The Tigers played a strong defensive game in Wednesday’s 50-33 loss at Ole Miss, actually limiting the Rebels powerful attack to just 50 points, 38 percent shooting, while out rebounding the Rebels by 12 and getting 17 offensive rebounds.
But on the offensive end, the Tigers converted just 27.9 percent of their shots and one-of-16 three-point attempts, while committing 25 turnovers, 16 in the first half.
Despite that, LSU Coach John Brady, remains confident in his team and their plan of attack because of the strong effort made against Ole Miss.
“The last thing I need to do is make the players believe I don’t have any confidence in them. I’ve got to support them to make them play better. I’m not disenchanted or disappointed.”
Brady said he hopes to keep the practices light the next few days to keep his team as fresh as possible with the two games coming up on Saturday and Tuesday. Thursday the team had its basic Thursday weight training session, watched some film and then came on to the court for about 20 minutes to shoot free throws.
“We could have decided to grind it out, but I don’t think a two-hour practice would have been the answer,” Brady said.
Brady will continue to go with the same lineup of Torris Bright, Jermaine Williams and Collis Temple at guards, with Ronald Dupree and Brian Beshara at the forwards. Dupree, at 17.9 points per game and back over nine at 9.1 rebounds a contest, remains second in the league in both categories.
LSU is 11-9 overall and 1-8 in the SEC, while Auburn is 13-9, 3-6 in the SEC West. Auburn won the first meeting between the two teams on Jan. 13, 85-69. In that game, LSU feel behind 23 points in the first half, before closing it to six in the final five minutes. Dupree led LSU with 16 points, while Beshara scored 15 and Temple 12. Adam Harrington off the bench for Auburn led the Tigers with 19. Abdou Diame added 13 and Scott Pohlman 12. Jamison Brewer had 10 assists for Auburn.
Auburn has been off since last Saturday, and like LSU, comes into the game off a loss to Ole Miss last week, 74-70, in a game in which Auburn had an 11-point halftime lead.
LSU next plays on Tuesday night at a special early start time of 6 p.m. against Florida. The early start time is to accommodate ESPN television.