BATON ROUGE — The LSU Tigers try to open the season 3-0 for the first time since the 2005-06 season Sunday afternoon as the first weekend of the LSU Invitational closes out with the Tigers hosting Northwestern State in a 2 p.m. contest at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Tickets for the game start at $5 and are available online at www.LSUsports.net and at the upper ticket windows of the Maravich Center beginning at 12:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network (New Country 100.7 FM in Baton Rouge) and streaming video of the game is available in the GeauxZone.
LSU won its opening round game in the five-team, four-game two-weekend round robin event that continues next Friday through Sunday. LSU defeated Alcorn State (77-45) on Thursday while Northwestern State won a 69-66 decision over North Louisiana rival Centenary on Friday.
The Tigers got balanced scoring and balanced play out of the team in the game that ran LSU’s record to 2-0. All 12 players who dressed played in the game at least seven minutes and no starter logged more than 18 minutes as LSU started a five-game set of games in a 13-day period. Tasmin Mitchell had 12 points and Alex Farrer off the bench equaled his career high with 11 points. Freshman Storm Warren had his first collegiate double double with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
Coach Trent Johnson knows the challenges ahead for his team with the 2-1 Demons under Coach Mike McConathy who will be going for his 500th win combining 26 years as a junior college and Division I coach. Last year, Johnson’s Stanford team was only up six at the half against the Demons and had to battle them the entire game to get the win.
“I mentioned to (the team) right after the game, that our schedule is set up so that each team we play moving forward is a better team than the team we played (Thursday),” Johnson said. “We play Northwestern State and we played them last year when I was at Stanford. It was a six-point ball game at the half. Mike (McConathy) does as excellent job as their head coach.”
The Tigers got on Alcorn State early, jumping out 20-2 and allowing the Tigers to play their bench and various combinations throughout.
“I’m happy with the start, but we have a problem,” said Johnson. “We had eight offensive rebounds against us against Jackson State and we had 11 (Alcorn). I am happy with the start. For me, it is all about their intensity, not their effort because they give effort. Also, it’s not about me or us as coaches, (players) are the ones that have to buy in and get the job done. For the most part, I thought the offensive execution was good and I thought we got off to a decent start defensively.”
LSU is expected to start for the third straight game the three-guard combination of seniors Marcus Thornton (6.5 ppg) and Garrett Temple (3.5 ppg) and sophomore Bo Spencer (14.5 ppg) along with forward Mitchell (14.5 ppg, 6.0 rpg) and senior center Chris Johnson (10.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg).
The Tigers blocked 16 shots against the Braves tying the school single game record of 16 set by the Shaquille O’Neal-Stanley Roberts Tigers on Jan. 2, 1990 against Texas in a 124-113 LSU win.
In the second week of the Invitational, the Tigers face Centenary on Friday (Nov. 28) at 7 p.m. and Troy on Sunday, Nov. 30 at 6 p.m.
Northwestern’s Michael McConathy, the junior son of Coach McConathy, led the Demons off the bench with 17 points. McConathy’s other son, sophomore Logan, started at point guard in the Centenary game.
The Demons lost at Indiana in their opener and defeated East Texas Baptist prior to coming to Baton Rouge for the Invitational.