BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s basketball team plays its last regular season game this Saturday when it travels to Knoxville, Tenn. to take on the University of Tennessee Volunteers. The game will be televised to a regional audience by CBS-TV. Tip-off is set for 11 a.m. CST.
Both teams are coming off emotional, overtime wins in their last contests. LSU (12-14, 2-13) needed an extra five minutes to knock off 14th-ranked Ole Miss 78-77 last Wednesday in
Baton Rouge despite falling behind by eight points early in the extra period. The win ended a nine-game losing streak for the Tigers.
Tennessee (20-9, 7-8) took South Carolina to overtime last Tuesday night in Columbia, S.C., erasing a seven-point deficit in the last minute to take a 68-67 victory.
The Volunteers lead the all-time series 51-38, including a commanding 26-13 advantage in Knoxville. The two teams have met every year since 1948.
LSU has lost six in a row to the Volunteers after winning six straight in the series. Last season, Tennessee handed LSU one of just four SEC losses by beating the Tigers 64-59 in Baton Rouge.
The game is the last regular season contest for LSU players Brian Beshara, Jack Warner and Lamont Roland, who has missed every game since the Tigers opened conference play against Alabama on Jan. 6.
Tennessee will say goodbye to seniors Vincent Yarbrough, Isiah Victor, Ron Slay and Tony Harris, all of whom are averaging 12 points per game or better this season.
Both teams move on to the SEC Tournament in Nashville next week. LSU’s first round game will be next Thursday at approximately 8:45 p.m. against Georgia. LSU is the No.6 seeded team from the SEC West.