BATON ROUGE – The LSU Tigers go for an eighth straight win as it takes its final turn toward the start of conference play when it hosts Savannah State Saturday at 6 p.m. in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Tickets for the game are available at LSUtix.net and at the upper concourse windows of the Maravich Center beginning at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday.
The game will be televised by the SEC Network (Dave Baker, Joe Dean, Jr.) and in the radio broadcast will be available in the Geaux Zone at LSUsports.net and the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network with Jim Hawthorne, Ricky Blanton and host Kevin Ford.
The game will be carried by these affiliates: Baton Rouge, WDGL (98.1 FM); Alexandria, KSYL (970 AM); Bogalusa, WBOX (92.9 FM); Ferriday, KFNV (107.1 FM); Houma, KJIN (1490 AM); Jena, KJNA (102.7 FM); Lafayette/Opelousas, KLWB (103.7 FM); Lake Charles, KXZZ (1580 AM); Leesville, KJAE (93.5 FM); Monroe, KMLB (540 AM); Morgan City, KFRA (1390 MA); Natchitoches, KWLV (107.1 FM); New Orleans, WWL (870 AM, 105.3 FM); Ruston, KRUS (1490 AM); Shreveport, KWKH (1130 AM); Tallulah, KTJZ (97.5
FM); Tylertown, Mississippi, WFCG (107.3 FM); Ville Platte, KVPI (1050 AM).
LSU is 10-2 and coming off dominating home wins before and after Christmas against Charleston (Dec. 22), 71-47, and Southern Miss, 87-67, this past Monday. LSU was able to look at some different combinations in the Southern Miss game allowing some of the bench players to get some good minutes as LSU took control of the game after starting 0-for-9 from the field. LSU did finish shooting just under 50 percent from the floor after the first five minutes of the contest.
“I thought we had some good moments in the Southern Miss game; especially with the different lineups that we were able to go with as we tried to find out how we can maximize the bench and utilize them prior to going into conference play as far as what our rotation can be,” said LSU Coach Johnny Jones. “The Savannah State game … it is an opportunity for us to look at some guys in other positions to see how we can best look at ourselves moving forward. I’m very encouraged by the things that we have been doing – scoring, defending; a lot of guys showing the ability to score. Jarell (Martin) and Jordan (Mickey) have been leading this team in a lot of areas. They have really impacted us on both ends of the floor so that’s really encouraging night in and night out.”
Mickey has had two consecutive double doubles including 14 points and 10 rebounds against Southern Miss. Martin just missed a double double with a game high 24 points and nine boards. It was Tim Quarterman off the bench that his first career double double with 12 points and 14 rebounds.
Jalyn Patterson played 22 minutes in the game with 10 points while Aaron Epps continued to g some time and had five points and Brian Bridgewater played nine minutes with five points.
On his bench, Coach Jones said, “Well, l I think Jalyn Patterson is continuing to show what he is capable of doing in a lot of different settings. Aaron Epps, coming off his injuries, the minutes he has had an opportunity to play, we’ve seen a lot of bright spots from him as well … We think Elbert Robinson will help us as we get toward conference play when we have more like size teams — guys bigger, stronger — that we will have to match up with. It will be easier to get those guys in the rotation.
“Bridgewater has done a tremendous job backing up in the post area at the four spot. We were hopeful we could gradually get him on the perimeter some. But he’s really done a good job in backing up Jarell (Martin) and scoring in there, defending and he’s continuing to gradually come along. We’ve been happy with him. We’re not hesitant about putting him in the game. There’s no slippage. There is no letdown,” Jones said.
LSU is expected to go with its standard lineup of Martin (17.5 ppg, 9.0 rpg), Mickey (15.6 ppg, 9.9 rpg) and John Odo (2.0 ppg, 1.4 rpg) at the forwards with Josh Gray (10.6 ppg, 4.6 apg) and Keith Hornsby (13.3 ppg, 2.3 apg) at guards with Tim Quarterman the sixth man who has played 30 or more minutes in 11 straight games.
Savannah State is 3-9 and last played on Dec. 16 at Tulane, losing 75-67. They are among the league leaders in steals average at 9.7 per game and are coached by Horace Broadnax in his 10th season. Broadnax was a member of the 1984 national championship team and 1985 NCAA runnerup team at Georgetown.
Southeastern Conference play opens next week with LSU scheduled to play the final game of the mid-week set of games on Thursday night at 6 p.m. at Missouri in a game on ESPN2 and the LSU Sports Radio Network. LSU returns home to for its Maravich Center conference opener on Saturday, Jan. 10, at 8 p.m. against Georgia.
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