BATON ROUGE — Decision making and getting better will be two of the hoped for goals along with a victory Tuesday night when the LSU men’s basketball team plays host to the University of New Orleans in a 7 p.m. game at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Tickets for the game are $11 for adults and $5 for youth 12 and under and can be purchased online at LSUsports.net or the upper ticket windows of the Maravich Center beginning 90 minutes prior to tipoff.
The game will be regionally televised on Cox Sports Television (Ch. 37 in Baton Rouge) and on the LSU Sports Radio Network affiliates (including Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) and for subscribers of the “Geaux Zone” at LSUsports.net.
The Tigers are 4-1 and coming off a 90-70 win over McNeese State on Saturday, a game in which the Tigers offensive output was strong enough, but 27 turnovers created problems in the continuity of the game of the young LSU team.
What I am concerned about it our decision making with the ball,” said LSU Coach John Brady. “Against team as athletic as we are, the spectacular plays will diminish. So, the other things are going to win the game by making better decisions with the ball. It wasn’t like (Saturday) we were limited to making some poor decisions with the ball to just one guy. It’s across the board. So, it’s something our team needs to get better at. I anticipate they will. If we can eliminate turnovers, make better decisions with the ball, and don’t be careless, that will give us more possessions where we get shots. There were 27 times we didn’t even shoot the ball.”
In the game, Glen Davis led LSU with 21 points and 10 rebounds, while Darnell Lazare had a career high of 19 points. Darrel Mitchell added 18, Tasmin Mitchell 13 and Tyrus Thomas made it back-to-back double doubles with 11 points and 10 boards. LSU shot 54.2 percent from the field (32-of-59) and was out rebounded for the first time this year, 44-41, by the Cowboys.
UNO comes into the game with a 2-4 record, playing its first game in its home state after playing three home games at its fall semester home of UT-Tyler because of Hurricane Katrina. The Privateers are coming off a 93-75 win in Tyler over Southeastern Oklahoma State in which Wayne Williams led UNO with a career high 34 points. The Privateers are missing star Bo McCalebb who is out for the year after sustaining a broken wrist in the loss at Mississippi State late last month.
This is the second of six games in 13 days for the Tigers who are in the middle of final exam week on the campus. LSU plays Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday night and then hosts Northern Iowa on Monday before traveling to Las Vegas to face Arkansas-Monticello on Dec. 22 and Cincinnati on Dec. 23 in the Las Vegas Holiday Classic.