This season has been anything but easy for the LSU men’s basketball team — overtime nail-biters, game-changing moments and high-pressure situations have been the norm.
But as much as the Tigers (15-4, 4-2 Southeastern Conference) would like to cushion themselves from the opposition, junior guard Keith Hornsby said the close calls will do for now.
“Of course, we’d like to have some easier wins,” Hornsby said. “But we are playing tough opponents, and you never know what can happen.”
After claiming its third overtime victory in four tries Saturday, LSU squares off against another one-win SEC team when it hosts a slumping, yet competitive, South Carolina squad (10-8, 1-5 SEC) at 6 p.m. Wednesday night at the PMAC.
LSU has won the previous two meetings against the Gamecocks and three of the last four.
On first glance, the matchup appears to overwhelmingly favor the Tigers, who moved into a tie for second place in the SEC following Saturday’s win at Vanderbilt. Since losing to Missouri on Jan. 8, LSU has won four of its last five games and is off to the best conference start of coach Johnny Jones’ tenure.

Things haven’t been quite as nice for South Carolina coach Frank Martin and his squad. After getting off to a promising 9-3 mark, the Gamecocks have dropped five of their last six games, including a 58-43 loss to No. 1 Kentucky on Saturday.
But Jones has preached the underdog role to his team all season, and this won’t change, despite facing a team currently riding a three-game losing skid.
“We know [South Carolina] will be physical, they’ll be tough, they’ll play with a sense of urgency, and they certainly have a core group of veterans that have some experience under their belts,” Jones said. “We have to be up for the challenge.”
Part of the challenge for Jones will be gearing up his team for a second consecutive game against a seemingly overmatched opponent. Entering Tuesday, South Carolina sat in a three-way tie for last place in the SEC with Missouri and Vanderbilt, which LSU beat in overtime Saturday.
However, four of the Gamecocks’ six conference games were decided by four points or less, and one of the their signature nonconference wins was a 23-point beatdown of Clemson, to whom LSU lost during the Paradise Jam in late November.
Jones made sure his team was aware of that.
“I think you can point to the success that the teams have had in our conference, and that’s what we really rely on,” Jones said.
What LSU has relied on lately has been sophomore forwards Jarell Martin and Jordan Mickey, who have accounted for more than half of the Tigers’ total points (80-of-158) and rebounds (45-of-77) from their last two outings.

But Martin doesn’t expect South Carolina’s frontcourt tandem of junior Laimonas Chatkevicius (6 feet 11 inches) and sophomore Demetrius Henry (6 feet nine inches) to nudge a bit. The duo led the Gamecocks to a plus-12 margin on the boards against Kentucky, the nation’s 10th-best rebounding team.
“We can’t overlook any team in this conference,” Martin said. “The SEC is a very tough conference, very competitive, and teams are going to come out giving it their all every night.”

After playing four of its first six SEC games on the road, LSU has four of its next five in the PMAC, including a matchup against Kentucky on Feb. 10. But Hornsby, who’s shot 6-for-11 from downtown in his last two games, said the Tigers can’t afford to take anyone lightly in the deeper-than-expected SEC.
“It’s been a crazy year so far,” Hornsby said. “We’re just trying to separate [ourselves]. You can’t take a night off. You never know who’s going to come in and play well.”