BATON ROUGE — The LSU Tigers, off two strong wins over Mercer and Towson, now steps into the Louisiana portion of its schedule which begins Sunday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center against Northwestern State University.
The Tigers and Demons, meeting for the first time since the 1992-93 season, play in the back half of a strong women’s-men’s doubleheader with the nationally-ranked LSU Lady Tigers taking on last year’s national runner-up, Purdue, in the opener of the doubleheader at 2 p.m. Tickets for the LSU games will be on sale beginning 90 minutes prior to the women’s tipoff at the Maravich Assembly Center box office.
There is no television for the men’s game, but the game will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Network (Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) and on the Internet at LSU is 5-1 coming off an 83-46 win over Towson University Wednesday night in the Assembly Center. The Tigers were sluggish in the first half, before dominating in the second half, shooting over 60 percent from the floor as Collis Temple III ended with a season-high 24 points, with Torris Bright getting 14 points and seven assists, while inside forward Brad Bridgewater had a career high 12 points.
Northwestern State is the first of four straight Louisiana schools the Tigers will face in the first 18 days of the month. Two will come in rapid succession, the Demons Sunday and Louisiana Lafayette on Tuesday. After that comes nearly, a two-week break for concentrated study period and final exams before facing McNeese State on Dec. 15 and traveling to New Orleans to meet UNO on Dec. 18 at Lakefront Arena.
The Demons are 2-4 on the season, but have won two-of-the-last-three games. Northwestern State is coming off a narrow 60-58 loss at Hawaii on Nov. 27. Northwestern State won the designated first-round game between the Demons and Winthrop in a nationally-televised contest which brought plenty of attention to the Natchitoches school. The Demons are coached by former star player at Louisiana Tech, Mike McConathy, who spent 16 years as the head coach at Bossier Parish Community College before taking the head job at Northwestern State prior to the 1999-2000 season.
LSU is expected to go with the same lineup it used in its first six games with Bright and Temple at guards and Bridgewater, Williams and Ronald Dupree at forwards. Leading the Demons attack is Michael Byars-Dawson, averaging 18.3 points per game and maybe one of the most prolific shot blockers to come into the Assembly Center since the Shaquille O’Neal days, sophomore D’or Fischer. The 6-11 native of Philadelphia is averaging 8.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and a sensational 5.8 blocks per game.
“This is another step up in competition for us and we need to be ready to play at our best as the quality of the competition continues to improve,” said LSU Coach John Brady. “Everyone got to see what this team could do last year. Mike McConathy is an outstanding coach and he has put together a very good basketball program at Northwestern State.”
The Tigers are putting a 36-game win streak on the line against Louisiana competition dating back to Dec. 1988 when LSU lost to Louisiana Tech in overtime in the Assembly Center.