BATON ROUGE — Two teams coming off big wins Wednesday night, LSU and Arkansas, meet in a Southeastern Conference Western Division basketball game Saturday at Noon at the Maravich Assembly Center.
The game will be regionally televised on JP Sports (WAFB-TV in Baton Rouge) and radio coverage in Louisiana will be provided by the LSU Sports Network (Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge, WSMB in New Orleans and on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net.
Tickets for the contest are still available ($12) and will be available through Saturday a.m. on the Internet at the LSUsports.net and will be available at the upper ticket windows of the Maravich Center beginning at 10:30 a.m. Ticket office personnel are urging fans to arrive early because of the expected heavy walk-up crowd buying tickets at the last minute.
The Zooperstars, a comedy group of animal mascots representing famous sports celebrities, will be the halftime entertainment.
The Tigers (15-4, 5-3) are coming off an impressive 84-67 win over Tennessee here Wednesday night, their third consecutive SEC victory. The Tigers shot 60.4 percent from the field (29-of-48) and LSU was 10-of-18 (55.6 percent) from three-point range.
LSU had five players in double figures led by Darrel Mitchell who hit six treys in scoring a career high 22 points with eight assists and no turnovers. Jaime Lloreda added 18 points and 12 rebounds, while Antonio Hudson hit four treys in a 17-point performance. Brandon Bass and Tack Minor each scored 10 for the Tigers.
“After the Alabama game, we thought the schedule sort of favored us as we have several home games coming up,” said LSU Coach John Brady. “We played very well here at home against Tennessee on Wednesday. Hopefully, that will continue Saturday versus Arkansas. They had another big win at home (Wednesday). We are the only team that has been able to beat them at Bud Walton Arena so far. We will have to play well Saturday. Arkansas is about to take that next step. I just hope it’s not Saturday in Baton Rouge.”
Arkansas was an easy 74-52 winner over Auburn at Fayetteville on Wednesday, building up a 36-16 lead at the intermission of the game. The Razorbacks enter the game at 11-8 overall, 3-5 in the SEC Western Division and winners of three of the last five. Jonathon Modica leads the Razorbacks, averaging 17.1 points a game.
LSU will be off for a week following this game, returning to action on Feb. 14 at Florida. LSU’s next home game is February 18 against Auburn.