BATON ROUGE — Having not played at home since the 13th of December, the LSU men’s basketball team will return home Wednesday night to play South Carolina in a Southeastern Conference game at 7 p.m. at the Pete Maravich Center.
Tickets remain on sale for the game at $12 each throughout the day at the LSU Athletics Department Ticket Office and at the upper concourse ticket windows of the Maravich Center beginning 90 minutes prior to tipoff. The game will be shown on a tape-delayed basis on Cox Sports Television, following the conclusion of the New Orleans Hornets basketball game, but no earlier than 9 p.m. on the regional sports network. The live radio broadcast of the game will be available on the LSU Sports Network (Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) and on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net. The game is also available on Sirius Satellite Radio on Channel 111.
Since it is a Wednesday game, Eagle 98.1 FM will be giving away a trip for two, this time to see the Eagles in concert in New York City. LSU men’s basketball team trading cards will also be available for pickup at the Fan Zone on the upper concourse of the building.
LSU is 6-5 overall and 0-1 in the SEC after falling at Alabama Saturday night, 73-58. It was the second straight game in which LSU was one point down at the half only to struggle offensively in the second half as Utah (Jan. 3) and Alabama (Jan. 8) spurted away in a four or five minute segment in the final 20 minutes to put the game away.
South Carolina is 9-4 and 1-1 in the league after an impressive 74-54 win over Georgia on Saturday. The Gamecocks lost their opener by four points, 79-75, to Kentucky one Wednesday ago.
In the Georgia game, USC put the game away early with a 34-6 first-half run on the way to a 20-point advantage at the intermission. Carlos Powell led the Gamecocks with 19 points, hitting 8-of-12 field goals, with Tre Kelley adding 11 and Josh Gonner 10.
Dave Odom is the head coach of the Gamecocks, in his fourth season at Carolina.
The Tigers are expected to bring out its normal lineup of guards Tack Minor, Darrel Mitchell and Antonio Hudson and forwards Brandon Bass and Glen Davis. Hudson will be honored prior to the start of the game Wednesday night for his recent achievement of becoming the 34th player in LSU history to score 1,000 career points. Hudson, a senior from Grambling, topped the 1,000-point mark late in the Dec. 30 win over Florida State in New Orleans in the Nokia Sugar Bowl Basketball Classic.
Hudson sprained his left ankle in the first half of the Alabama game and finally had to leave the game in the final 10 minutes. Hudson has not had a full practice this week prior to the USC game, but worked out on his own Tuesday at the opposite end of the court from the team and is expected to go unless complications occur prior to the start of the game.
LSU played five games and had a break for Christmas during the 30 days between games in the Maravich Center. This is the start of three straight home games for LSU as the Tigers will be back in action Saturday at 7 p.m. against the Big 10’s Ohio State and then Jan. 19, LSU will host Arkansas.