BATON ROUGE — The LSU Fighting Tigers, after a week off for final exams, returns to the court Saturday night looking to get back on the winning track against Northwestern State University.
The Demons and Tigers will meet at 7 p.m. in the Maravich Assembly Center. There is no television for the game but the LSU radio coverage will be available on the LSU Sports Radio Network, in the GeauxZone at LSUsports.net and on the SEC channels of XM Satellite Radio.
Tickets for the game are $11 and $5 for youth (ages 3-12) and are available online at www.LSUSports.net. The upper concourse ticket windows open at the Maravich Center open at 5:30 p.m. There will also be a Tiger Girls dance clinic prior to the game from 2-5:30 p.m. in the auxiliary gym of the Maravich Center. Registration at the door is $45 and includes a game ticket, a t-shirt and the opportunity to dance with the Tiger Girls at halftime of the LSU-Northwestern State game.
The Tigers will be looking to rebound from a loss to Villanova in the Pizza Hut Big East/SEC Invitational on Dec. 6 in Philadelphia. LSU lost, 68-67, after playing perhaps its best first 32 minutes of the season, but some missed opportunities, missed free throws and careless fouling contributed to LSU falling in the final minutes after gaining a big lead.
LSU is 5-3 on the season entering the final four games of the 2007 portion of the season with only six games total remaining until the start of Southeastern Conference play on Jan. 9.
The Demons are searching for their identity in the 2007-08 with a record of 4-6 after losing last Saturday to the fifth-ranked team in NAIA, LSU-Shreveport, 79-73. In that game Trey Gilder scored 31 points and in the last five games he has averaged 23 points and 8.4 rebounds.
The Tigers blocked 14 shots in the game against Villanova, just two off the school record and stand after eight games with a season average of 9.0, third in the country behind the first-place tie of Connecticut and UNC-Asheville.
But the blocks are just one component of the game and after playing a complete game for just over 30 minutes, now John Brady wants to see the Tigers expand on that and play to their potential for a full 40 minutes.
“For us to go to Villanova and have the game in hand like we did, shows we’ve made some progress. The next thing we’ve got to do is learn how to win against quality teams,” said Brady. “We’re defending rebound and taking care of the ball better. But we still need to do all of those things continually better.”
The Tigers will be looking to continue to ride their big three scoring threats ? Marcus Thornton (19.3 ppg), Anthony Randolph (15.0 ppg) and Chris Johnson (12.6 ppg) ? as they go for a 67th-consecutive win at the Maravich Center over a Louisiana school. The streak, dating back to Dec. 8, 1988, will be decided for the season in this game as this is the final state school LSU will play in the Maravich Center this season. LSU has already won all four previous games this season against Louisiana universities.