Men's Basketball Back to Action Friday Against Texas State, 7 p.m.
BATON ROUGE – After game one, there must be a game two.
Friday night at just after 7 p.m. CT, the LSU men’s basketball team will try to carry over the success from Tuesday’s game one to game two when they host Texas State in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The game will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network and streamed on SEC Network+. The Voice of the Tigers, Chris Blair, and former LSU head coach John Brady will have the call on both radio and streaming video.
Tickets are available all day Friday at LSUtix.net and beginning at 6 p.m. at the upper ticket windows of the Maravich Center.
The Tigers performed well in the opening contest and will look to continue that as the competition steps up in the Bobcats of the Sun Belt Conference. Texas State (1-0 | roster | schedule) won the SBC in 2021 and return four starters and eight players from last year’s team. The Bobcats won on opening night at Incarnate Word, 75-57.
In LSU’s 62-point win over ULM, Darius Days made 8-of-9 treys, as for the second-straight year he had his best scoring game to that point in the opening game of the season. A year ago in St. Louis, he scored 24 against SIU-Edwardsville, and totaled 30 against ULM to start the 2021-22 campaign.
He was one of five players in double figures as Efton Reid scored 16 in his first college game, Tari Eason had 11 points and 10 rebounds in his first LSU game, while another transfer, Xavier Pinson, had 10 points and seven assists in his first LSU game. Returnee Eric Gaines also scored 10 points with seven assists to start his sophomore season at LSU.
The Tigers also played defense with 14 steals and holding the Warhawks to just 4-of-28 shooting in the second half. ULM scored on just 19-of-71 possessions in the game, compared to 45-of-72 for LSU.
“They are so good defensively that we have spent a ton of time just trying to figure out how we are going to score and how we are going to go about scoring,” said LSU Head Coach Will Wade. “They’ve only given up 26 points in the paint in their two games (exhibition and opener). They do an unbelievable job protecting the rim both with their help and their physical shields. It’s going to be a big challenge. We are going to hit shots. At the end of the day, to beat them you are going to have to hit threes, you are going to have to play from the corner and make things happen from the corner. At the end of the day, that’s what we are going to have to be able to do.”
LSU is in the second game of a five-game in 14-day homestand that will continue on Monday when LSU hosts Liberty at 6 p.m. in a game televised on ESPNU.