BATON ROUGE – The LSU Tigers enter the final three weeks of regular season Southeastern Conference play tied for the league lead and looks to take the next step forward Wednesday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center when it faces the Alabama Crimson Tide for a second time this season.
The game tips off at 8 p.m. and tickets are available at the LSU Athletics Ticket Office with upper level seats going for just $7. LSU Students as usual are permitted entrance to the game free of charge with valid student ID. Tickets are also available online at www.LSUtix.net.
The popular “Quick Change” act will perform at halftime.
Dave Neal and Daymeon Fishback will have the call of the television broadcast on the SEC Network with Jim Hawthorne, Ricky Blanton and Kevin Ford on the game for the LSU Sports Radio Network (Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge).
The Tigers are tied with Kentucky at 9-3 (Kentucky hosts Tennessee on Thursday) with South Carolina a game back at 8-4. In all, the league race is still up for grabs with nine teams within three games of the lead, including Wednesday’s opponent, the Crimson Tide at 6-6.
LSU is coming off a 76-71 win over No. 15 Texas A&M on Saturday, while Alabama is coming off a 61-55 win at Florida on Saturday. LSU has won five-of-its-last-six conference games dating back to the first meeting with Alabama in Tuscaloosa, 72-70, while Alabama since that game has won five-of-its-last-six conference games.
The Tigers in the first meeting rallied from five down at halftime to defeat the Tide in the first meeting with Tim Quarterman rebounding his own miss in the final half minute to score to give LSU the winning points. It was LSU’s first win in Tuscaloosa since 2004.
Ben Simmons leads the Tigers with a 19.3 points per game average as well as 12.0 rebounds per game and will start at point forward with Craig Victor II at the other forward averaging 12.5 points per game. The guards are expected to be Keith Hornsby (13.6 ppg), Antonio Blakeney (10.9 ppg) and Quarterman (11.2).
In its last game with A&M, Simmons and Victor led LSU with 16 points. Simmons had 11 rebounds and seven assists, while Victor had 14 second half points after having to sit out the final 15 minutes of the first half with foul trouble.
Despite fouling out with five minutes to play, Retin Obasohan led Alabama with 15 points and seven rebounds against the Gators with Jimmie Taylor getting 11 and Justin Coleman and Shannon Hale getting 10 each. Alabama held Florida to just 28.6 percent from the floor, but the Gators outrebounded Alabama, 54-35.
Obasohan leads Alabama with a 16.0 points per game average with Shannon Hale at 11.3 points per game.
In the first meeting, Obasohan led the Tide with 20 points, while Arthur Edwards had 17. LSU was led by Simmons with 23 points, while Hornsby scored 12 and, Victor and Quarterman had 11 each.
“We are certainly looking forward to a great challenge on Wednesday against another team that has won five out of its last six games in Alabama,” said LSU Coach Johnny Jones. “Those guys have had some big wins and the latest beating a Florida team on the road. Through that excitement we understand where we sit, where we are, and we are excited about being in first place in the league but certainly not satisfied or comfortable with where we are. You can be assured that our preparation and work for Wednesday night’s game against Alabama will have our full focus on what we need to do to hopefully continue to improve as we get better through this conference march. “
LSU is 16-9 overall while Alabama enters the game at 15-9.
Following the Alabama game, the Tigers will go the road for two games (Saturday at Tennessee and Tuesday at Arkansas) before returning home on Feb. 27 against Florida.
Updates during the game will be available on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/LSUBasketball and on Twitter @LSUBasketball.