Preview: LSU Hosts No. 4 Alabama In SEC Showdown
In this story:
The LSU men’s basketball team will be back in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Saturday afternoon for a 3 p.m. game against Alabama.
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 Chris Blair and former LSU head coach John Brady on the call. Kevin Fitzgerald and Daymeon Fishback will call the game on ESPNU.
Tickets are available online or at the upper concourse ticket windows beginning at 2 p.m. LSU students are admitted free of charge with valid ID.
The Tigers will continue to celebrate past teams at the game as the first 1,000 students will receive 1953 Final Four t-shirts. Two members of that team that went to the NCAA national semifinals 70 years ago, Bob Pettit and Ned Clark, are expected to be in attendance for the game.
Alabama is 19-3 and 9-0 at the halfway point of the SEC season and the No. 4 ranked Crimson Tide is coming off a 101-44 win over Vanderbilt on Tuesday in Tuscaloosa. Brandon Miller led Alabama with 22 points and six treys. Nimari Burnett hit four treys in getting 14 points, while Rylan Griffen added 12, Noah Gurley 11 and Charles Bediako had 10.
Miller averages 19.2 points and 8.1 rebounds on the year for the Crimson Tide with Mark Sears the other player in double figures with 13.7 points per game.
The teams met earlier in league play at Tuscaloosa with Alabama getting a 116-76 win over LSU. The Tide his 14-of-33 from distance in the first half and held LSU to 25.8% shooting in the first 20 minutes. Both Cam Hayes and KJ Williams each had 10 points in the game to lead LSU.
Alabama has won six-of-the-last-seven meetings in the series but the Tigers scored an 80-77 OT win over the Tide to close out the 2021-22 regular season.
LSU is coming off an 87-77 loss at Missouri on Wednesday in Columbia. LSU sustained offensive play much longer in the game and had six players in double figures with both KJ Williams and Derek Fountain recording double doubles in the contest.
“This is a great opportunity for us again (Saturday),” said Coach Matt McMahon. “Top-five team in Alabama coming in here. Obviously very impressed with their win over Vandy and their first matchup that we had in Tuscaloosa. So, a lot of areas we will have to improve upon tomorrow. As we reflect on the loss at Missouri, I thought from an offensive standpoint we made a lot of improvement; more aggressive, attacking off the dribble and creating scoring opportunities for each other. We want to score more efficiently on some of those open opportunities. Again, as you look at the three-point defense, especially in the first half, we know how important that will be in Saturday’s matchup. That has to be much better.”
