LSU prepares to face Missouri Tuesday night on the road

BATON ROUGE – The LSU Tigers take to the road for the first time in Southeastern Conference play when they visit Columbia, Missouri for an 8 p.m. Tuesday contest with Missouri at the Mizzou Arena.

The Voice of the Tigers, Chris Blair, and former LSU head coach John Brady will call the game on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network (Guaranty Media flagship Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) and Mark Neely and Jon Sundvold will call the game on the SEC Network.

Both teams are 11-3 and 0-1 in the league. LSU was an 80-72 loser at home to Vanderbilt, while Missouri lost on the road, 84-68, at No. 2 Auburn on Saturday.

LSU struggled in the first half with turnovers on offense and trailed by seven at the half after falling behind by as much as 13. But in the second half, the Tigers ability to drive to the goal opened up shooting areas for players like Cam Carter and LSU was able to tie the game and take a brief one-point league in the final seven minutes.

But Vanderbilt had the fire power and the ability to keep possessions alive that led to second chance points that pushed the Commodores over the top.

Carter had his second straight 20-point game to lead LSU with 22 points, while Jordan Sears had 17 points and Corey Chest 12.

Marques Warrick led Missouri in scoring on the night, tallying a season-best 19 points on just eight field goal attempts – 5-of-8 from the field with two treys and 7-of-8 from the free throw line. Marcus Allen added nine points.

Mark Mitchell leads Auburn in scoring for the season at 13.3 points and Tamar Bates is at 12.6 points a contest.

This is the first of two contests for the Tigers on the road this week as LSU will travel to Oxford to take on Ole Miss Saturday at 5 p.m. CT (LSU Sports Radio Network, SEC Network). The Matt McMahon Radio Show will take place this week at 7 p.m. at TJ Ribs on Acadian Thruway (LSU Sports Radio Network).

*LSU press release

LSU post game quotes

LSU head coach Matt McMahon on what LSU can learn from the first game…
“The overall ball-security. Some of it was poor decision making, driving into a lot of traffic, but that’s what Vanderbilt does. They do a good job gapping spin-dribbles and turning you over. We got caught up in the air a couple times and threw passes away. They made us pay; that’s part of the reason they had 26 points in the paint in the first half. In the second half, we did a better job limiting that with less turnovers. Certainly their physicality and defensive pressure really bothered us I the first half.”

LSU guard Cam Carter
On the change made for “crunch time minutes” …
“I mean, I feel like in the first half we had our ‘welcome to the SEC moment’ for all of us. You know, in the second half, I feel like we woke up and we were able to run our actions, you know, and we were a lot tougher on offense and defense.”

On what was the “welcome to the SEC moment” …
“Just the bumps, the toughness, the flow of the game. I feel like, you know, they were a disciplined team. They were aggressive and they threw the first punch.”

On what you can take from the first half going forward…
“The same way we came out in the second half is the same way we have to come out in the first half. All season we haven’t really put two halves together. We have to do a better job of that. We’re in the SEC now, so, you got to learn from every game. Like I said, it’s a learning experience for us. It’s something that we knew all season, but if we want to be a good team and at the top of the SEC, we have to be better.”