BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s basketball team goes back on the road Saturday to Memorial Gym in Nashville to face No. 11 Vanderbilt in a Noon contest.
The game will be broadcast on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network (Guaranty Media flagship Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) with the “Voice of the Tigers” Chris Blair and former LSU Head Coach John Bray on the call. Dave Neal and Mark Wise will have the call on the SEC Network.
The Tigers are 12-3 overall and 0-2 in the SEC this year with Vanderbilt coming in at 15-0 and 2-0 in the league. LSU played the first two games of the SEC season without point guard DJ Thomas Jr., and his status was still day-to-day with his lower leg injury as of Friday morning.
LSU was blitzed by South Carolina in the first half of a 78-68 loss here on Tuesday as South Carolina hit 10-of-13 three-point field goals (76.9 percent) in the first half of the game in building a 25-point halftime advantage. LSU cut the game to six points in the second half but was never able to get any closer.
Max Mackinnon led LSU with 15 points, while Pablo Tamba and PJ Carter each had 10 points. Mike Nwoko, who still is No. 1 in the SEC and No. 3 in the NCAA in field goal percentage, had his first game shooting under 50 percent this season, but pulled down a career high 13 rebounds.
The Commodores remained undefeated Wednesday night with a 96-90 win over No. 13 Alabama at Memorial Gym. Vanderbilt shot 46 percent from the field and 35 percent from three-point range, holding Alabama to just 23 percent from distance. Vanderbilt was 35-50 from the free throw line in a game with 63 fouls called.
Five Vandy players were in double figures led by Tyler Tanner’s career high of 29 points. Duke Miles added 19, Tyler Nickel had 12, AK Okereke 10 as did Devin McGlockton, who also had 12 rebounds.
Alabama out rebounded Vanderbilt 49-38, with a 23-14 advantage in second chance points, but Vandy had 14 points off 13 Alabama turnovers. Alabama had just five points off the eight Vanderbilt turnovers.
For the season, Miles is averaging 17.2 points with Tanner right behind at 17.1 a contest. Nickel is at 14.7 points, while McGlockton posts at 10.9 points and 7.3 rebounds and Jalen Washington averages 10.1 points a game.
Mark Byington is in his second season as the head coach of the Commodores.
LSU’s Jalen Reece has filled in the last two games starting for Thomas and in two games he has posted 13 assists.
Following Saturday’s game, LSU will be back at home for two games next week, facing Kentucky on Wednesday (6 p.m.) and Missouri on Saturday, Jan. 17, at 2:30 p.m. Saturday’s game will serve as Alumni Day and will salute the 40th anniversary of the 1986 NCAA Final Four team. Tickets are available at LSUTix.net.