BATON ROUGE — Another tough assignment faces the LSU Tigers Saturday night at 7 p.m. at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center when the seventh-ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs come to town.
Approximately 2,500 tickets remain for the contest and tickets will be available on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net until 5 p.m. on Saturday at which time they will go on sale at the upper concourse ticket windows of the Maravich Assembly Center. There is no television for the event and the radio broadcast will be available throughout Louisiana on the LSU Sports Network and on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net.
The first 2,500 fans will receive the second set of four LSU men’s basketball trading cards for the 2002-03 season and one fan in attendance will have the opportunity to make a half-court shot for $10,000.
Junior forward Jaime Lloreda, who missed Wednesday’s game with Houston because of a hyper extended left knee, went through both practices on Thursday and Friday with no apparent swelling in the knee and is listed as probable to return to the starting lineup on Saturday along with forward Ronald Dupree and guards Torris Bright, Antonio Hudson and Collis Temple III
LSU (10-2, 0-1) is coming off a non-conference 80-51 win over Houston on Wednesday evening in which Ronald Dupree equaled the fifth highest game of his career with 23 points. Torris Bright doubled up with 11 points and 10 assists, the fifth double figure assist game of his career. LSU lost is conference opener on the road last Sunday at Georgia.
Mississippi State (10-2, 0-1) had a 10-game winning streak snapped by Florida in their league opener. Mario Austin, the 6-9 center from York, Ala., leads the 10-2 Bulldogs, who is averaging 20.3 points and 9.8 rebounds. Austin had 22 points and 16 boards against Florida. At one guard is Derrick Zimmerman of Monroe, La., who is averaging 9.8 points per game and 5.0 assists.
LSU leads the series, 96-84, but the teams have split regular season meetings each of the last four years. The teams last met in the semifinals of the SEC Tournament in Atlanta in March 2002 with Mississippi State getting a 57-51 decision.