Tigers Start Busy Hoops Week With Morning Tilt vs. Sam Houston St.
The event is closed to the public.
BATON ROUGE – The LSU Tigers begin a busy week of basketball activity Monday morning when Sam Houston State comes to town for an 11 a.m. tipoff at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
This game was scheduled just last week after LSU was forced to cancel its appearance in the Holiday Hoopsgiving event in Atlanta this past Saturday. Because of the last-minute scheduling, no season ticket holders or fans will be allowed in the Maravich Center other than the two teams player-pass guest list.
The game will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network (Guaranty Media flagship Eagle 98.1 FM in BR) and televised on the SEC Network.
This will be the first of three games that LSU will play by Saturday afternoon and the first of four in nine days. After hosting Sam Houston Monday, the Tigers will host UNO on Wednesday at 8 p.m. (SEC Network) and North Texas at 11 a.m. Saturday (SEC Network Plus). LSU will also host VCU in the final non-conference game before the Christmas break on Tuesday, Dec. 22 at 8 p.m. (SEC Network).
All the games will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network.
The Tigers are 3-1 on the young season, having last played on Dec. 6 against Louisiana Tech, winning 86-55. Five players were in double figures led by Trendon Watford with 18 with Javonte Smart and Cameron Thomas each getting 16 apiece. LSU shot over 50 percent for the game, continuing the streak of hitting over 50 percent for all four games.
Defensively, LSU improved as well holding both Southeastern (11/30) and LA Tech (12/6) to under 30 percent from the field. Coach Wade will be looking to see how the Tigers handle the defensive boards as the Bulldogs grabbed 13 offensive rebounds away from LSU in that game, resulting in a 13-5 advantage for Tech in second chance points.
Mwani Wilkinson got his first LSU start against the Bulldogs and Walker, Louisiana freshman Jalen Cook had his first double figure scoring game of 10.
Sam Houston State is 3-3 on the season and has been scoring points in bunches, topping 100 in its last three games against Dallas Christian (117-42), Howard Payne (117-54) and LeTourneau (107-65). Sam Houston had a game at Houston canceled last week.
The Bearkats are coached by Jason Hooten who won his 200th career game against LeTourneau. He is 0-2 against LSU. The teams last met in Coach Will Wade‘s first season with LSU winning, 80-58.
Zach Nutall is averaging 25.5 points per game for Sam Houston with Demarkus Lampley averaging 11.7 points a game. Thomas leads LSU at 22.3 points a contest with Watford at 18.8 points a game.