BATON ROUGE — Two teams coming off strong offensive performances will do battle Saturday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center as the LSU Tigers (5-1) play host to the University of Louisiana-Lafayette (2-5) in a 7 p.m. contest.
The Tigers come into the game off a 94-53 win over the University of New Orleans Tuesday night at home, while Louisiana-Lafayette shot 61 percent from the floor in beating Oral Roberts, 95-74, in Lafayette on Thursday.
Tickets for the game are available on line through Saturday afternoon at the LSU website, LSUsports.net and on sale at the Maravich Center beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the upper ticket windows. Tickets are $11 for adults and $5 for youth 12 and under.
The game will be regionally televised on Cox Sports Television (Ch. 37 in Baton Rouge) and the radio broadcast will be available on the LSU Sports Radio Network, on the GeauxZone at LSUsports.net, and on Sirius Satellite Radio (Channel 144).
The Tigers cut their turnovers by more than half in the UNO game, from 27 to 12, and again helped their top rebound margin in the nation stat by out boarding the Privateers, 49-30, in a game that saw Glen Davis score 21 points with 16 boards and Darnell Lazare scoring 20 for a career night of points for the second straight game.
Dwayne Mitchell, who led UNO with 22 points against Oral Roberts, is the leading scorer for the Cajuns with an 18.1 points per game average and a 12.0 rebounds per game average. Michael Southall averages 14.5 points per game.
“They (Louisiana-Lafayette) are very athletic,” said Coach John Brady. “It’s going to be the best team we’ve played in athleticism coupled with size to this point. I sure they are coming in here with a lot of confidence. They’ll come in here relaxed and confident and we are going to have to be ready to play. We may have to play our best game outside of the West Virginia game for us to be able to win it. We are going to have to defend well. We won’t be able to get away with defensive mistakes. It will be a challenge for them. Our guys are going to need to be committed to defending and rebound. If we can do those two things, than it would certainly enhance our chances of winning the game.”
Brady said that Magnum Rolle, the freshman forward who missed the last two games with an ankle sprain, will dress and be able to play against the Cajuns after returning to practice and Coach Brady also indicated that junior point guard Tack Minor, who is returning off a semester long school related suspension, may not now see his first action until Monday’s game with Northern Iowa.
“Tack probably won’t play (Saturday) because of the timing of the game and no practice. We can practice him Sunday and get him up and down the floor and get him introduced to some things prior to Monday. I don’t want to get him in a situation where it is a difficult spot for him,” said Brady.”
The Tigers final game of the four-game home stand is the Monday game with Northern Iowa before LSU leaves for Las Vegas for games in the Las Vegas Holiday Classic, Dec. 22 and 23.