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LSU Hoops to Get Test From Liberty, Monday at 6 p.m. CT

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LSU Hoops to Get Test From Liberty, Monday at 6 p.m. CT

BATON ROUGE – The LSU Basketball team takes another step up as it faces an NCAA Tournament team from a year ago in the Liberty Flames in a Monday night contest at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

The game features an earlier start time of 6 p.m. CT and will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network with the Voice of the Tigers Chris Blair and former LSU Head coach John Brady (flagship Eagle 98.1 FM Guaranty Media in Baton Rouge). The telecast will be seen on ESPNU with Dave Neal and Pat Bradley on the call.

Tickets for the game are available all day Monday at the LSU Athletic Ticket Office and online at LSUtix.net. The upper concourse ticket windows at the Maravich Center will open at 5 p.m.

The Liberty Flames won the ASUN regular season and tournament titles each of the past three seasons and has won 20+ games each of the past five seasons. Coach Ritchie McKay uses the “Pack Line Defense” model from his days at Virginia as associate head coach and the Flames have been in the top six nationally in defense the last three seasons including giving up just 60.0 points per game in 2021 (third).

Liberty (1-0) won its opener against Regent, 85-24, on Thursday. ASUN player of the year Darius McGhee hit five treys in scoring 21 in the win, while Joseph Venzant had 13 points. Liberty shot 56.9 percent for the game and made 12-of-30 treys.

Liberty won 23 games a year ago with two wins over Southeastern Conference opponents and six wins over Power 5 school in the last five seasons, including an NCAA Tournament win in 2019.

The Tigers are 2-0 on the young season and this will be the middle game of a five-game season opening homestand. LSU defeated ULM, 101-39, on Tuesday and this past Friday defeated Texas State, 84-59.

In the game Friday, Texas State’s defensive system gave LSU some early problems at the same time the Bobcats were making six first-half three-pointers. LSU trailed 37-32 at the intermission but the main thing the intermission did was give Coach Will Wade and his staff a chance to make adjustments.

And adjust the Tigers did, coming out to hold Texas State to just eight field goals while LSU got the game back to its pace and posted 52 to win going away. LSU in two games has shot 53.2 percent while allowing just 34 percent from the floor. The Tigers are 46.8 percent from the arc (22-of-47) while opponents have only made nine treys in the first 80 minutes.

Senior Darius Day is averaging 23.5 points and 6.5 rebounds a game for the Tigers while sophomore transfer Tari Eason is averaging an early double double with 14.0 points and 10.0 rebounds. Freshman Brandon Murray is also in double figures at 10.5 points a game.

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