BATON ROUGE – Despite a crushing loss in the last seven seconds to Mississippi State on Saturday, the LSU Tigers are ready to try again for their first Southeastern Conference victory when they host the Arkansas Razorbacks at 7 p.m. Wednesday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The Tigers are 9-17, 0-12 in the league while Arkansas continues to fight for the Western Division title with a record of 14-13 overall and 7-5 in a tie with Mississippi State entering the next to last week of the season. The game will be televised by the over-the-air SEC Network (WBXH-TV in Baton Rouge) and on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network (New Country 100.7 FM The Tiger in Baton Rouge). The audio is also available for subscribers of the GeauxZone at LSUsports.net.
Tickets are available online at LSUsports.net and at the upper concourse ticket windows beginning at 5:30 p.m.
This will be the second time that LSU and Arkansas have met this season with Arkansas a big 87-52 winner just two weeks ago in Fayetteville. Arkansas scored the first 10 points of the game in the first 2:30 of the contest and went on to build a 43-21 halftime advantage. Courtney Fortson led Arkansas with 17 points while Rotnei Clark had 16 and Jemal Famer added 11 for the Razorbacks. Tasmin Mitchell had 15 points and 13 boards for LSU and Zach Kinsley scored 13.
“Obviously, the last time we played Arkansas, they really handled us physically,” said LSU Coach Trent Johnson. “We had no excuses from the lack of competitiveness we showed in that game. Since then, I think we’ve been as good as we’ve been all year against Vanderbilt (2/13) and Mississippi State (2/20). We had some good offensive performances from Dennis (Harris) and Storm (Warren). We found a way to hang in the game.
“I thought Mississippi State was in the position in the first half where they started to get separation, and we fought our way back. I thought they were in the position twice in the second half where they started to get separation, and we fought our way back. We had a couple of opportunities on the offensive end with guts that were open and attacking the rim. We are getting better; we just aren’t winning. We’ve got to continue to work at it, and dwell on getting better the next opponent and the next game. That’s all you can do in this business.”
Tasmin Mitchell, who already owns the career minutes mark at LSU, will set another mark Wednesday evening as he is expected to start in a record 132nd game at LSU, topping the mark of 131 set by Garrett Temple, who was also the previous holder of the minutes played mark until this season. Mitchell stands at 1,926 career points and needs just 74 points to get to 2,000 for his career. Only Pete Maravich and Rudy Macklin have over 2,000 at LSU and just 23 players have gotten 2,000 points in their SEC careers.
This will be the next to last home game for LSU as the Tigers will travel to Auburn for a 6 p.m. Saturday tile (FSN) before traveling to Ole Miss on Thursday, March 4 for an 8 p.m. ESPN2 affair. The season concludes with senior day activities for Tasmin Mitchell and Alex Farrer on Saturday, March 6 at 4 p.m. on FSN.
Coach Johnson announced Monday in his media session that Farrer has been cleared to play after undergoing surgery earlier in the year for a dislocated kneecap. “He wants to play and he’s been cleared to play,” Johnson said. “There’s nothing that can worsen his situation. He’s dragging his knee a bit and for me, as much as I want him to play because he wants to play, I still have to look at his welfare and health.”
Aaron Dotson, who missed Saturday’s game with a chest inflammation, is also being cleared with what tests have shown to be a “bad case of asthma,” according to Johnson. His status remains day-to-day.
SEC NETWORK AFFILIATES
Ft. Smith-Fay-Sprngdl-Rgrs, AR, KHBS, ABC
Ft. Smith-Fay-Sprngdl-Rgrs, AR, KHOG, ABC
Little Rock-Pine Bluff, AR, KATV, ABC
Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto, CA, CSN-SAC, RSN
San Francisco-Oak-San Jose, CA, CSN-BAY, RSN
Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbrn, FL, WRBW, MNT
Tampa-St. Pete, Sarasota, FL, WTTA, MNT
Atlanta, GA, WPCH, IND
Augusta, GA, ERDW, MNT
Evansville, IN, WTVW, FOX
South Bend-Elkhart, IN, WHME, IND
Bowling Green, KY, WBKO, ABC
Lexington, KY, WKYT, CBS
Baton Rouge, LA, WBXH, CBS
Lafayette, LA, LA, KLAF, MNT
New Orleans, LA, WUPL, CBS
Shreveport, LA, KMSS, FOX
Charlotte, NC, WSOC-DT2, IND
Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville, NC, WNCN-DT, NBC
Binghamton, NY, WBPN, MNT
Oklahoma City, OK, KXOC, IND
Greenvll-Spart-Ashevll-Anderson, SC, WSPA-DT, CBS
Chattanooga, TN, WDSI, FOX
Knoxville, TN, WVLT, CBS
Nashville, TN, WUXP, MNT
Tyler-Longview-Lfkn & Ncgd, TX, KLPN, MNT
Roanoke-Lynchburg, VA, WDRL, IND
Charleston-Huntington, WV, WSAZ, NBC