BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s basketball team will hope to ride the wave of good play it showed in the final 10 minutes of Saturday’s game at Ole Miss when the Tigers host Western Division rival Auburn Wednesday night at 7 p.m. at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The battle of the Tigers will not be televised but the radio broadcast will be available on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network, in the “Geaux Zone” at LSUsports.net and on the SEC Channels at XM Satellite Radio.
Tickets for the game are $14 for adults and $5 for youth (ages 3-12). LSU students are admitted with a valid ID and this game is one of the two student point games this season giving attending students priority points for future ticket options.
One lucky contestant will have the chance to shoot for $10,000 courtesy of Campus Federal Credit Union. Fans can still register at the Perkins, Nicholson or LSU Union locations of Campus Federal for their chance to again shoot for $10,000 on February 16 at the Kentucky game.
The game program Wednesday night will also have for the first time for viewing the nominees for the All-Decade teams of the 1940s and 1950s as part of the 100th anniversary of LSU basketball celebration. Fans can vote for their favorite players at www.LSUsports.net.
LSU enters the game at 7-9, 0-2 in the SEC Western Division, while Auburn is 9-5 and also 0-2 in the West. LSU is coming off a rallying 74-71 loss to Ole Miss Saturday in Oxford in which the Tigers came from 22 down, 60-38 with less than 11 minutes to play to within two in the final minute. Auburn is coming off a 72-56 loss at the O’Connell Center in Florida.
The majority of the rally took place with forward Quintin Thornton and Alex Farrer on the floor along with Garrett Temple, Marcus Thornton and Anthony Randolph. Thornton, who rejoined the team this past Tuesday, played 27 minutes and had seven points and eight rebounds. Coach Brady said he hasn’t decided if this would be the starting lineup for the Auburn game.
Both teams are diminished in numbers with LSU missing Tasmin Mitchell and Chris Johnson because of injuries and now Dameon Mason, out by NCAA rule for GPA of second semester fifth-year seniors. Auburn is without Korvtoney Barber who broke his left hand on Dec.29 and Boubacar Sylla who has been out since November with a stress fracture. The teams leading scorers, Quan Prowell and Rasheem Barrett at 14.0 points per game both suffered minor injuries in the Florida game, but both are expected to play. Prowell and Barrett are each averaging 14.0 points per game.
“The addition of Quintin has helped us a bit,” Brady said. “He’s only had four practices but he’s playing well, executing better.”
Also helping was the scoring ability of both Marcus Thornton and Garrett Temple against Ole Miss. Thornton was over 20 points for the eighth time in 16 games with 25 points, while Temple has continued to return to better form from long range, hitting 4-of-8 against Ole Miss with 16 points and making 8-of-13 three-pointers in the last four games.
The Tigers travel to Nashville on Saturday for a noon game at Memorial Gymnasium with Vanderbilt. The game will be regionally televised in the Southeastern Conference viewing area by Raycom Sports. LSU will then have a week off before hosting Arkansas on Jan. 26 at 8 p.m. on ESPN Classic.