BATON ROUGE — LSU hopes it can parlay its success in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in 2008 through to the first game of 2009 as the Tigers put a 14-game home winning streak on the line against Southeastern Louisiana University Saturday night at 7 p.m.
There is no live television for the game but the radio broadcast will be available on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network (New Country 100.7 FM The Tiger in Baton Rouge) and in the Geaux Zone at LSUsports.net. The scoreboard video camera feed of the game will also be available for subscribers of the Geaux Zone.
Tickets for the game start at $11 and are available through the day Saturday on LSUsports.net with ticket windows opening at 5:30 p.m. at the upper concourse ticket windows of the Maravich Center.
LSU enters Saturday’s game with a record of 11-1 with the Tigers winning streak that dates back to the final three home games of a season ago, tied for the fifth longest win streak in the 38-year history of the Maravich Center.
While LSU has also been able to extend its 73-game Louisiana home winning streak that is over 20 years old, the last three games have shown that extending the streak without a strong effort by the Tigers isn’t an automatic.
LSU had to rally to beat Nicholls State, edged McNeese State by just three points and had to battle to the horn to get an 81-79 win over Louisiana-Lafayette on New Year’s Eve as the Cajuns scored 48 second half points on LSU.
“For us to give up 48 points in the second half on our home floor, that’s not acceptable,” said LSU Coach Trent Johnson. “I’ve got to believe we’ll bounce back and be better next time out. Our margin of error is extremely slim. We have to be at a fever pitch from one end of the floor defensively and rebounding regardless of who we play.”
Who the Tigers play will again be no slouch as SLU comes in with a 6-6 record but close decisions at Arkansas, Minnesota and last time out in a 77-65 loss at Auburn. Coach Jim Yarbrough is in his fourth season as the head coach in Hammond.
LSU is expected to go with its standard lineup of Marcus Thornton, Garrett Temple and Bo Spencer at guards, Tasmin Mitchell at forward and Chris Johnson at center. Mitchell is coming off a career high game of 25 points with six steals, while Temple had six assists and Spencer his second highest scoring game of 20 points. Johnson had 13 rebounds and Thornton was in double figures for the eighth consecutive game.
There will be little rest for LSU after this game as they travel on Monday morning to Salt Lake City to take on the University of Utah Tuesday night at 8 p.m. CST. LSU opens Southeastern Conference play at 12:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 11, at Alabama before returning home for the conference home opener against South Carolina at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 14.