TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Fresh off an exciting 81-80 road win Wednesday night at Auburn, the LSU men’s basketball team travels here Saturday afternoon looking to extend the streak against the University of Alabama.
Game time is set for 2 p.m. at a sold-out Memorial Coliseum in a game to be regionally-televised by Raycom Sports. The radio broadcast of the game will be available on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network, the “GeauxZone” at LSUsports.net and on the SEC Channels at XM Satellite Radio.
The Tigers are 8-12 on the year while Alabama is 12-9 but both are struggling in the SEC West at 1-5. LSU’s win stopped a 15-game road losing streak that dated back to December 2006, while Tennessee handled Alabama in its last outing, 93-86. Alabama’s lone SEC win is also over Auburn, last Saturday, 97-77.
The LSU win featured the outstanding play of junior college guard Marcus Thornton who made eight three-pointers, including two in the final minute that gave LSU the lead, as part of a 38-point night. The 38 points was the most in the league since Auburn’s Tony Douglas scored 3 on November 24, 2004. It was the most points scored in a conference game in the league since Ronnie Henderson scored 40 points at Alabama on Feb. 11, 1995.
It’s the first time anyone has scored over 38 points at LSU since Darrel Mitchell scored 32 in LSU’s 113-101 double overtime win over Ohio State on Jan. 15, 2005.
The eight three-pointers made are tied for the third most made in a single game. Only twice, by Chris Jackson, has someone made more than eight in a game.
Thornton now has five consecutive games of at least 20 points and has moved to the lead in both overall and conference game scoring.
LSU for the second time this season rebounded easily from a bad shooting night turning from a 29 percent night at home versus Arkansas to shooting 50.8 percent at Auburn. At the start of league play, the Tigers had turned from a 21 percent night against Mississippi State to three shooting games of better than 45 percent.
“I was proud of our players,” Coach John Brady said. “They have stayed the course. They have kept working hard and believing in what they are doing. We played a 40 minute game, particularly offensively. We have had lulls of offense where we couldn’t make baskets, and against Auburn we were able to make baskets and keep scoring. We found a way to win on the road. It’s tough to win on the road in this league. We are focused and continuing to work hard, and we had a couple guys have some good offensive nights. Auburn played hard and shot the ball well. It was a well-played game, and we were fortunate enough to win it. We were certainly glad to win it.”
Mark Gottfried is in his 10th year as the head coach of the Crimson Tide. Richard Hendrix is leading the Crimson Tide in scoring at 19.4 points per game and 10.2 rebounds a game. Alonzo Gee is also averaging a strong 16.4 points a game and Mykal Riley is at 12.8 points per contest. Gee had a big night in the loss to Tennessee scoring 27 points, while Hendrix had a 20-point, 12-rebound double double.
Thornton’s average is now up to 19.7 points per game with freshman forward Anthony Randolph averaging 14.2 points per game, 8.4 rebounds and 2.5 blocks as he is fourth in the league in rebound average. He now has 50 blocks for the season, cracking the top 10 in the school’s list of top shot blockers for a single campaign. Randolph has a present streak of 10 double figure scoring games.
The Tigers got back some of its offensive punch Wednesday with the return of center Chris Johnson, who has been sidelined since Jan. 2 at Tulane when he broke a bone in his right hand. In his debut, Johnson, who hit his first two shots, scored six points with three rebounds and two blocks.
After the Alabama game, LSU will have the next league playing date on Wednesday off, its second and final off-date of the conference season. The final nine games of the league begin for LSU with a home-game against nationally-ranked Tennessee at 2 p.m. (Feb. 9) at the Maravich Center. The game will be regionally-televised on Raycom Sports. Tickets for the game are on sale online at www.LSUsports.net for $14 for adults and $5 for youth (ages 3-12).