BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s basketball team looks to make it six home victories this season when it hosts Oral Roberts in a special Saturday afternoon start time of 1 p.m. CT at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The game time was moved to afternoon to accommodate exams at Vanderbilt who originally had the 1 p.m. slot. The SEC and SEC Network asked the schools to switch and now LSU and Oral Roberts will play the second of what is five games scheduled for the SEC Network on a major day of hoops Saturday. Doug Bell and Barry Booker will have the call of the game on the Network.
Jim Hawthorne, in his final season as “Voice” of the Tigers along with Ricky Blanton and host Kevin Ford will be courtside for the call on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network, including Guaranty Broadcasting flagship Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge.
The first 3,500 fans Saturday at the contest will receive the copy of the new 2015 Bowl Poster saluting LSU’s appearance in the Texas Bowl courtesy of LSU Sports Properties.
Tickets for the contest are available online at LSUtix.net and at the Maravich Center upper concourse ticket windows beginning at 11:30 a.m.
The Tigers are coming off a 78-57 win over Gardner-Webb on Wednesday to go to 5-4 on the season, while ORU was beaten 85-66 at Missouri State to fall to 8-4. The loss also dropped ORU’s RPI from 17 to 31.
LSU came out of the box with an aggressive style on both offense and defense and it showed as the Tigers held GWU to just 24 percent from the field in the first half in building a 42-23 halftime lead. LSU also controlled the boards with apparent ease at 54-35 including a 17-8 advantage on the offensive board and that resulted in a 17-6 advantage in second chance points.
It was the second game of the season that LSU had five players in double figures with Keith Hornsby leading the way with 14 points and Ben Simmons 11 points (12 rebounds) and Antonio Blakeney also getting 11.
Aaron Epps had his first collegiate double double of 10 points and 11 rebounds for the Tigers.
Oral Roberts will be looking for first win over a current member of the EC since 2009-10 when ORU beat Missouri. Against Missouri State, the Golden Eagles were done in by a slow start, hitting just one of its first 15 shots and just 6-of-29 in the first half as Missouri State built a 45-22 advantage.
Coach Scott Sutton coaches the Golden Eagles in his 17th year as head coach. They are led by Obi Emegano, who leads the team and the Summit Conference in scoring at 23.3 points per game. Jalen Bradley averages 10.3 points and Albert Owens 10.1.
LSU is still looking to play with a full roster as even though it had Keith Hornsby and Craig Victor II back on Wednesday it was without Jalyn Patterson and Brian Bridgewater. Both are listed as day-to-day with minor leg injuries. Hornsby has had two double figure games, including 32 at Houston, since his return from surgery and Victor was the fifth player for LSU in double figures with 10 points in his debut on Wednesday.
“(ORU) has won some really big games this year,” said LSU Head Coach Johnny Jones. “Not only did they beat Tulsa, at Tulsa, but they played really well at Oklahoma for a half. They’ll be another tough team for us to deal with. We are looking forward to a great challenge.”
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