BATON ROUGE — The LSU Tigers look to get a season split with the University of Alabama when the Tigers and the Crimson Tide meet for the second time this season in a Sunday Southeastern Conference game that tips at noon at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The game will be regionally televised by Raycom Sports (Live Video via Raycom) and broadcast on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network (New Country 100.7 FM The Tiger in Baton Rouge). Tickets for the game will go on sale at 10:30 a.m. at the upper ticket windows of the Maravich Center. Tickets start at $14 with $5 youth tickets (ages 3-12) available as well. LSU students get in for free by showing their current ID card.
LSU has won six straight conference games since a 65-59 loss to Alabama on Jan. 11 in Tuscaloosa in what was then the conference opener for both teams. Marcus Thornton led LSU with 21 points and eight boards, while Tasmin Mitchell and Bo Spencer each scored 10. Senario Hillman scored 24 points and Alonzo Gee had 14 points and 13 rebounds for Alabama.
LSU is now 18-4 overall and 6-1 in the league. Alabama is 13-9 overall and 3-5 in the SEC. The Tide will be playing their fourth game under Interim Head Coach Philip Pearson, who replaced Mike Gottfried who resigned in late January. Pearson is 1-2 as the head coach of the Tide.
LSU has won 15-of-16 home games this season and will be looking to become just the third Tiger team in the 38-year history of the PMAC to win 16 games in a season.
LSU is coming off an 80-62 win at Georgia on Wednesday night in which Mitchell and Thornton dominated play with Thornton scoring 30 points and Mitchell 27. Alabama lost 79-74 at Vanderbilt on Thursday.
The Crimson Tide is also different in that Ronald Steele has left the team after his lengthy battle with injuries but Coach Trent Johnson realizes this is still a difficult task ahead for the Tigers.
“I thought they really handled up physically (in the first matchup),” said Johnson. “We are all aware that Senario Hillman had an exceptional basketball game with 24 points and in terms of them beating up. Ronald Steele was obviously injured at the time and playing with a bad heel, so the nucleus of guys who have played well for them ? and I thought they played well (Thursday) against Vanderbilt ? are still intact. We are going to have to do a better job physically on the glass than we did against Georgia. I thought Georgia really physically hounded us even though we out rebounded them.”
Thornton comes in leading the team in scoring at 19.9 points per game, just ahead of his final average a year ago of 19.6 points per game, while Mitchell is averaging 15.6 points per game. Bo Spencer, who struggled with no points at Georgia, is still averaging a nice 11.9 points per game.
After Sunday’s game, LSU travels to Mississippi State on Wednesday before the Ole Miss Rebels come to Baton Rouge on Feb. 14 for a 6 p.m. game at the Maravich Center.