Saturday Night Basketball At The Maravich Center As LSU Hosts A&M
BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s basketball team will be in action on Saturday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center against the Texas A&M Aggies in a rematch of an early January tilt.
Tickets are available online at LSUTix.net and beginning one hour prior to the 7:30 p.m. tipoff at the upper concourse ticket windows. LSU students get in free with valid ID. The first 1,000 students receive men’s basketball t-shirts.
Halftime entertainment will feature Grace Good, who has toured internationally with Cirque Dreams and appeared at multiple NBA and college basketball halftime shows.
The game will be broadcast on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network (Guaranty Media flagship Eagle 98.1 FM in BR) with the Voice of the Tigers Chris Blair and former LSU head coach John Brady. The game will be televised on the SEC Network with Richard Cross and Mark Wise on the call.
LSU is 12-12 and 1-10 in the SEC while the Aggies are 17-7 and in second place in the SEC with a 9-2 mark. The Aggies are on a two-game winning streak with wins over Georgia and Auburn at home. Texas A&M has won 11-of-its-last-12 games.
Wade Taylor IV leads Texas A&M at 14.9 points per game with 99 assists in 24 games, while Tyrece Radford averages 13.6 points, Henry Coleman 10.2 and Julius Marble 10.0 a game.
LSU had two 10-point runs in the first half against Mississippi State in Starkville on Wednesday night but was unable to sustain that offense in the second half as Mississippi State shot over 60 percent from the field. KJ Williams led LSU with 11 points and Derek Fountain and Adam Miller had 10 each in the 64-53 loss at Humphrey Coliseum.
“We are looking forward to this next opportunity (Saturday) night against a very good Texas A&M team here at the PMAC,” said LSU Coach Matt McMahon. “Trying to bounce back from Wednesday’s second half performance. I thought in the first half, at Mississippi State, some of our best defensive possessions of league play certainly. Loved our energy and our activity level there. I thought we got deflections, had great protection at the rim. Unfortunately, we were not able to sustain that in the second half. We are continuing to search for ways to be more consistent in scoring the basketball. In the three games leading up to Wednesday we were averaging 71 (points) a game which had been major improvement for us. Great credit to Mississippi State’s defense. Our inability to execute on the offensive end led to another struggle scoring the ball there.”
The Tigers and Aggies met for the first time on Jan. 7 at Reed Arena in Bryan-College Station, with LSU falling, 69-56. Adam Miller hit five treys for the Tigers in getting 16 points, while Cam Hayes and KJ Williams each had 10 points. A&M dominated in the paint, 42-10, in the first meeting, 18-5 in second chance points.
“I think they (Texas A&M) have only continued to get better,” said Coach McMahon. “I think they embody what you are wanting to build as a coach. I think everyone maximizes their role on the team. They play with great energy and toughness. They have very good players, but then you see a lot of the physicality stats of the game, they dominate. Rebounding, the turnover margin, free throw line, they are playing really good basketball at both ends of the floor.”
The Tigers after Saturday’s game head to Athens, Georgia on Tuesday to take on UGA.