BATON ROUGE — The LSU Tigers travel to Oxford, Miss., for a Wednesday night date with the Rebels at 7 p.m. at Tad Smith Coliseum, hoping for the same success the last time they wandered in on an Ole Miss senior day ceremony.
Two years ago, in the midst of another run to the NCAA Tournament, Ole Miss honored its seniors prior to the game and the emotion of the moment lifted the Rebels in the early going. But slowly in the second half, the Tigers took charge of the game and went on to a 77-64 victory en route to finishing 8-8 in the conference and earning an NCAA Tournament bid.
Now a different group of Tigers must withstand the emotion of Ole Miss senior night as LSU looks toward a chance to win the SEC Western Division and improve on its 10-4 league record (17-8 overall). LSU and Alabama enter the week tied for the division lead and equal on the first tiebreaker head-to-head matchup. Alabama has two division games this week at home against Auburn Wednesday and at Mississippi State Saturday and has a 7-1 mark in division games, the second tiebreaker. LSU is 7-2 in the division going into the Ole Miss game and faces a probable must win to have any chance to win the number one seed in the SEC Tournament from the West, although LSU could still be a co-champion for the Western Division crown with a loss in one of the games.
There is no television for the contest, but the game can be heard on the LSU Sports Network (Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) and on line at www.LSUsports.net.
Ole Miss enters the game with a 13-14 record and 4-10 in the league, in fifth place in the West. The Rebels are 2-8 in their last 10 games, but are coming off an emotional last-minute loss to Mississippi State, Saturday in Starkville, 71-68.
LSU comes into the game as winners of four straight games, including two on the road, beating Auburn, 77-64. In that game, Brandon Bass had 22 points to lead LSU as Glen Davis also hit all seven field goal attempts as he scored 17 points.
“Our team was able to overcome an excellent start by Auburn on the road,” said LSU Coach John Brady. “We were able to get the ball inside a little bit and get the win at Auburn. We have another tough task trying to win at Ole Miss. Ole Miss played really well against Mississippi State. They are going to defend us as well as anybody in this league. We are playing well right now and hopefully can continue that on (Wednesday).”
The Tigers close out the regular season on Saturday at home against Vanderbilt in a game changed to 3 p.m. to accommodate the wild-card selection telecast of JP Sports. Tickets are on sale for $12 at the LSU Athletics Ticket Office and on line at www.LSUsports.net. Those attending the noon baseball game that same day can redeem their ticket stub from baseball for a $5 ticket to the basketball game at the upper ticket windows of the Maravich Center on game day and bowlers here for the American Bowling Congress Tournament at the River Center can get two $5 tickets by showing their membership card at the ticket windows on game day as well.
Four LSU seniors will be honored prior to that game (Antonio Hudson, Josh Maravich, Paul Wolfert and Josh Maravich) in ceremonies at approximately 2:45 p.m. Saturday.