BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s basketball team, looking to play again after a heartbreaking last-season 71-70 loss Wednesday at Ole Miss, takes on Mississippi State Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The Tigers, 14-11 overall and 3-8 in the Western Division, face the Bulldogs (14-10, 5-6) in the Lincoln Financial regional television game (WAFB-TV in Baton Rouge). The radio broadcast of the game can be heard on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network (Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) and at LSUsports.net in the “Geaux Zone.”
There will be special musical entertainment as David St. Romain of Baton Rouge, one of the four remaining finalists in the Nashville Star program on USA Network will entertain in a post-game concert on the floor of the arena following the game. Romain will be performing raising money for the Parker House in Baton Rouge.
Mississippi State comes into the game after an 84-60 win over Arkansas that moved the Bulldogs into a tie for second place in the West, one game behind Ole Miss. The Bulldogs defeated the Tigers just two Saturdays ago, 85-78, in a game in which State hit 13 three-pointers.
LSU’s Glen Davis led the Tigers in the first meeting in Starkville with 27 points and 10 rebounds, while Garrett Temple had one of his best scoring games of the SEC season with 16 points. Terry Martin added 14 points and Tasmin Mitchell had 11 as LSU shot 53.4 percent from the floor, and out rebounded the Bulldogs by 10.
The Tigers shot better than 60 percent against Ole Miss and had a plus-14 rebound advantage, but couldn’t, for the third time in league play, hold a lead in the final five minutes.
“The game that was play (against Ole Miss) was disappointing to not be able to win it,” said LSU Coach John Brady. “With the way we played, we deserved to win that game. We had a lot of players play well, and we played very hard. It’s unfortunate that we’ve been playing well and haven’t been able to win the close one. It will be interesting to see how we bounce back against Mississippi State.”
The Tigers need a win before facing a most difficult week of games, playing at Kentucky on Tuesday night before returning home next Saturday (Feb.24) to face No. 1-ranked Florida who very well could have already wrapped up the SEC regular season title by the time they arrive in Baton Rouge.