BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s basketball team, off a good offensive showing in the season opener on Friday, goes back on the court Tuesday night to face a Nicholls State University team that is favored in its Southland Conference division.
Game time is 7 p.m. at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. There is no television broadcast of the contest, but the game will be broadcast on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network (WTGE New Country 100.7 FM The Tiger in Baton Rouge). Live audio and scoreboard video can be accessed through the Geaux Zone at LSUsports.net/live.
Tickets are available online at LSUtix.net starting at $10 and $5 for youth (ages 3-12). LSU Students are admitted free of charge with LSU ID and the student lounge will be open with free food and drink beginning at 5:45 p.m. Tickets may be purchased on game night beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the upper concourse ticket windows of the Maravich Center.
LSU is coming off an 87-78 win over Northwestern State to open the season on Friday while the Colonels just missed pulling off a major win, losing 63-62 in overtime at Houston. It was just a year ago that LSU needed a late three-pointer to get a 63-60 win over Nicholls in the Maravich Center.
That allowed LSU’s lengthy win streak of almost 22 years against Louisiana schools in the Maravich Center to continue and Friday’s win over Northwestern State was the 82nd in the streak which started on Dec. 8, 1988.
In the LSU victory, two freshmen came out firing for LSU with Ralston Turner and Andre Stringer each scoring 21 points, the most by a freshman in an opening LSU game since Ronald Dupree scored 21 in his first game in 1999. Sophomore Aaron Dotson added 17 points and Malcolm White 12 as LSU shot 60 percent from the field with seven treys. The Tigers made 32 free throws, tied for the seventh most in an LSU game.
Nicholls had a 29-24 advantage at the half before Houston rallied to force overtime. Fred Hunter hit 12-of-21 field goals in scoring 28 for the Colonels and Anatoly Bose had 22 points and five assists. The Colonels hit all 12 free throws, but had 22 turnovers and Houston out rebounded Nicholls 34-25.
Despite the LSU offensive success, the Tigers had some things they had to go to work on in the practice gym after committing 25 turnovers and giving up 24 offensive rebounds.
“Going into this year we understand what we need to do, and how we need to go about it to be effective,” said LSU Coach Trent Johnson. “I didn’t expect to give up 24 offensive rebounds, but that’s putting a body on the guy. It has nothing to do with being fast, quick and strong. That’s doing what is going on inside your heart and your head. It’s disturbing because we haven’t shown signs of that. I think we got off to a 15-point lead, and the guys thought that this would be easy. This is just me, and it’s just them. No one came out here, dancing around excited. I don’t think anyone felt good about what went on out there from an offensive standpoint. Like I said, it’s correctible. Is it good when this happens and you win? I guess so.”
The Tigers play three games this week, starting with Tuesday’s contest. LSU also hosts Tennessee-Martin on Thursday before traveling to Tupelo, Miss., on Sunday for a game with Memphis.
Follow LSU Basketball on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/LSUBasketball and on Twitter @LSUBasketball and @LSUCoachJohnson.