BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s basketball team, looking for some offensive fire power, plays host to the Mississippi State Bulldogs in a men’s Southeastern Conference basketball game Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Tickets for the game will be on sale Wednesday during the day at the LSU Athletic Ticket Office and beginning 90 minutes prior to tipoff at the Maravich Assembly Center box office. Tickets are $10 each.
There is no live television for the game, although it will be shown on a tape delay basis at 9 p.m. on Fox 44 in Baton Rouge. The radio broadcast will be available on the LSU Sports Network (Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) and on the Internet at www.lsusports.net.
The Tigers and Bulldogs are meeting for the second time this season and Mississippi State dominated the second half against LSU en route to an 84-61win in Starkville on Jan. 26. LSU was outscored, 46-29, in the last 20 minutes, as the Bulldogs shot 67.9 percent in the half and 62 percent for the game.
The Bulldogs, 18-6, 5-5, are coming in off a high, having knocked off Western Division leader Alabama, 76-62, Saturday night in Starkville. Timmy Bowers scored a career-high 24 points off the bench to lead Mississippi State, while Michael Gholar scored a season-high 15 points.
LSU, 12-11, 2-8, has lost six straight conference games, but has played well enough defensively to win several of the encounters only to be unable to score the ball with any regularity outside of Torris Bright and Ronald Dupree. The pair has combined to score 48 percent of the team’s SEC game points.
Collis Temple III has yet to practice with the Tigers since spraining his ankle for the second time against Vandy one week ago and is questionable to best for Wednesday’s game. Thomas Davis, who has started at forward the last two games, left Tuesday’s practice after bumping knees with another player and his status for the Mississippi State game is unkown.
“Our biggest challenge against Mississippi State is trying to find a way to score,” said LSU Coach John Brady. “Our rebounding has been pretty good, especially on the offensive boards, and those are hustle plays and plays of effort. We need to find another player or two instead of relying on just two people to score a majority of our baskets.”
The Tigers, following Wednesday’s game, take to the road for a week at Arkansas Saturday and at South Carolina on Feb. 20.