BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s basketball team, after a two-week break for dead week and final exams resumes play Saturday night at the Pete Maravich Center against Northwestern State University.
The game time is an hour later than normal at 8 p.m., because the game by school rule is not allowed to start until semester exams are over. Tickets for $12 and $10 are available on the LSU web site at www.LSUsports.net and at the upper concourse windows of the Maravich Center, beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Also, as a special promotion in conjunction with WBRZ-TV weather personality Pat Shingleton, donations will be accepted outside the building for “Pat’s Coats for Kids” campaign and those fans donating a coat will receive two free tickets for the game courtesy of the Tiger Athletic Foundation.
There is no television for the game and the radio broadcast will be available around the state on the LSU Sports Network (Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) and at www.LSUsports.net.
The Tigers are 3-1 after a Nov. 27 loss to West Virginia, 84-69, in a game that stopped LSU’s 56-game home regular season non-conference win streak, while Northwestern comes in on a roll, having won five straight to start the season 5-2 after a Monday win in Natchitoches against Tulane (85-72). LSU defeated Tulane, 83-58, in the season opener of the LSU Louisiana Classic back on Nov. 19.
“The bad thing is that we have had off two weeks because of exams,” said LSU Coach John Brady. “It’s given us a chance to work on the things they have to work on. We need to play well, because we start playing games consecutively against some good teams. If we do things well, we have a chance to be a good basketball team.”
Twice during the break in preparation for the Northwestern State game, the Tigers have taken the practice session and turned it into a full-blown scrimmage with officials and statistics in hoping to keep the team focused during the break.
LSU’s five starters are all averaging in double figures with guards Tack Minor (12.3 ppg), Darrel Mitchell (13.8 ppg), Antonio Hudson (14.0 ppg) expected to be joined in the lineup by forwards Brandon Bass (17.0 ppg) and Glen Davis (10.9 ppg). Minor had a career high 17 points against West Virginia and has had 16 assists in the last two games.
Northwestern State counters with two players scoring in double figures for Mike McConathy’s club — Jermaine Williams with 11.1 points per game average and Jermaine Spencer at 10.9 points per game. Williams is a three-year starter who had 22 points against Tulane, while Spencer is third nationally in field goal percentage at 75 percent per game.
For the Tigers, Saturday’s game with Northwestern State and Monday’s 7 p.m. game with McNeese will be the last home games for a month in Baton Rouge as LSU travels to Biloxi to play Southern Miss on Dec. 18 and then travels to Houston on Dec. 21. The 2004 portion of the schedule closes out on Dec. 30 at the New Orleans Arena against Florida State in the Nokia Sugar Bowl Basketball Classic.
LSU travels to Salt Lake City to take on Utah on Jan. 3 before opening SEC play on Jan. 8 at Alabama. LSU’s next home action in the Maravich Center is Jan. 12 against South Carolina.