BATON ROUGE — After suffering its first defeat of the season on Saturday in Houston, the LSU Tigers have to quickly rebound to play against, hosting McNeese State on Monday night at 7 p.m. at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The game is the first of a four-game homestand that includes games Dec. 27 against Washington State (1 p.m.), New Year’s Eve against Louisiana-Lafayette (1:30 p.m.) and Jan. 3 against Southeastern Louisiana (7 p.m.).
Tickets for the game are on sale at LSUsports.net starting at $5 and will be available on game night beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the upper ticket windows of the Maravich Center. The game will be televised regionally by CSTHD and broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network and in the “GeauxZone” at LSUsports.net.
LSU enters the game 8-1 after the 72-61 defeat at the Toyota Center to Texas A&M and McNeese State is 5-4 after a 69-50 loss at Hattiesburg to Southern Miss on Thursday.
The Tigers had to depend on the scoring of Marcus Thornton and Tasmin Mitchell in the A&M game as Thornton had his fifth straight game in double figures with 23 points, while Mitchell had 16 points. Despite a bum shoulder, point guard Bo Spencer had eight points and five assists. Garrett Temple also had eight points and three assists.
A&M was able to get inside buckets that fended off several Tiger rallies, including one that cut the lead to two with a little over three minutes to play.
“(Texas A&M) was an NCAA caliber-tested team and they exploited us in the post a little bit,” said LSU Coach Trent Johnson. “But for the most part, I thought what happened to us was our own undoing.”
LSU found itself unable to go to the free throw line, getting there only 12 compared to the Aggies’ 30 and then could only make seven, missing four straight at one point deep in the contest, while the Aggies were making 22.
The Tigers again put streaks on the line in the contest Monday, including the 20-year plus 71-game PMAC winning streak against Louisiana schools that started against McNeese State on Dec. 8, 1988 as well as the current overall home streak of 11 games dating back to the final three games of last season. LSU’s current 11-game winning streak is tied for the 10th best in the 38-years of the PMAC and a win Monday would give the 2008-09 team the 10th best winning streak at the Maravich Center alone.