BATON ROUGE — The LSU Tigers go in search of their first home Southeastern Conference win again here on Saturday as they host the Ole Miss Rebels in a regionally-televised 5 p.m. contest at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The game will be televised on Fox Sports Net as their Saturday night hoops offering from the SEC and the radio broadcast will be available on the LSU Sports Radio network, in the “Geaux Zone” at LSU Sports.net and on the SEC channels at XM Satellite Radio.
Tickets for the game are available through mid-day Saturday online at LSUsports.net and at the upper ticket windows at the Maravich Center beginning at 3:30 p.m. Tickets are $14 for adults and $5 for youth (ages 3-12).
LSU is coming off an 87-61 loss at Arkansas on Wednesday in a game that went from 14-14 to a 21-point Arkansas lead in the matter of about five minutes as Arkansas hit their first nine three-point shots in the half and LSU was forced to play with leading scorer Marcus Thornton limited to just four minutes with a hip flexor. His status was still undetermined prior to Friday’s practice.
Ole Miss comes in off a 74-63 win over Mississippi State that snapped the Rebels four-game SEC losing streak. The Rebels are now 18-7 and 4-7 in the SEC Western Division while the Tigers are 9-16 and 2-9, having lost two straight. LSU is 1-3 under interim Head Coach Butch Pierre.
“It was a tough battle at Arkansas,” said Pierre. “During a three or four minute span in the first half we gave up open shots and they got into a rhythm. I thought the kids in the second half played much better. Without Marcus Thornton in our starting lineup, that is taking away 18 points a game. It was too much of a big distraction for our team.”
In the first meeting of the teams in mid-January in Oxford, Ole Miss built a 60-38 lead before LSU made a dramatic rally including a 10-0 spurt in the final minute that allowed LSU to get a shot up in the air to tie the game in a 74-71 Ole Miss win.
“Ole Miss’ size and style of play was tough to match up with,” said Pierre about the first meeting. “Chris Warren is a good guard, and has had a phenomenal year. We just have to be able to contain their guard play. Hopefully they won’t get any easy baskets. I know their physicality around the goal can be effective on certain nights. If we can restrain them and be able to execute on the other end and make some shots, we’ll be in pretty good shape.”
LSU is 0-5 at home this year in SEC play and 6-6 overall and the Tigers are trying to avoid being the first team in the history of the building to post a losing season. Twice before LSU has had teams finish overall with a .500 record in the building. Both of LSU’s two conference wins have come on the road and despite LSU’s record, it is still very mathematically possible with a win on Saturday for LSU to still finish as high as third in the SEC Western Division.
The Tigers will play their final Wednesday road game next week when they travel to South Carolina then will return to Baton Rouge for the final two home games of the regular season beginning on March 2 with a rare Sunday home game against Georgia and then a March 5 contest against Alabama.