BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s basketball team takes its final road trip of the regular season to Lexington Tuesday to face the Kentucky Wildcats at Rupp Arena.
The Tigers and Wildcats will tip just after 6 p.m. CT with the Voice of the Tigers Chris Blair and former LSU head coach John Brady on the call on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network (Guaranty Media Baton Rouge flagship Eagle 98.1 FM). Brian Custer and Daymeon Fishback will have the television call on ESPN2.
The Tigers are coming off an 81-69 loss at No. 24 Mississippi State on Saturday in which LSU led for almost 20 minutes of playing time with some solid offensive performances that gave them a two-point advantage at halftime.
LSU. despite Corey Chest not playing and Vyctorius Miller hurting an ankle seven minutes deep, also battled better on the boards and actually had a 15-9 advantage in second chance points.
Cam Carter had 18 first half points and finished with 23 for his seventh 20-point game in SEC play. Daimion Collins scored 10 points and Derek Fountain, seeing his first action in four games, was a perfect 4-of-4 from the field, including a three-pointer for nine points.
“(We were) much better on the glass after they had four offensive rebounds at the first media timeout,” said LSU Coach Matt McMahon after the game. “We got beat on some drives there. Obviously, [Josh] Hubbard took over and dominated late. [Riley] Kugel, I thought he had some amazing drives finding the lanes and taking it along the baseline to finish plays. It really hurt us. Offensively, the way Mississippi State plays. I believe we gave up seven made threes for 33 percent. They really converge on the ball, and they do a great job of swarming. We really had to shoot well from three. We made nine for 25 percent, but it wasn’t enough to win the game.”
LSU also continued to improve its turnover numbers with another single digit turnover game of nine against the Bulldogs.
““Ball security and rebounding was much improved (Saturday),” said Coach McMahon. “We couldn’t make enough shots and get enough stops there in the second half.”
Kentucky is coming off a 94-78 loss to No. 1 Auburn at Rupp Arena on Saturday and the Wildcats are 19-10 and 8-8 in the SEC under first year Coach Mark Pope. Two players posted 20 points in that contest with Koby Brea scoring 21 and Andrew Carr getting 20. Otega Oweh leads the Wildcats in overall scoring at 16.1 points a game while Jackson Robinson posts at 13.0 a game. Lamont Butler averaged 12.3 points with Amari Williams averaged 10.9 points and 8.6 rebounds.
LSU returns to Baton Rouge for the final game of the regular season on Saturday at 3 p.m. at the Maravich Center against Texas A&M. Prior to the game at 2:40 p.m., the Senior Tribute ceremony will be held honoring Carter, Jordan Sears, Dji Bailey, Trace Young and Derek Fountain.