One last hurrah.
Saturday’s game against Auburn will be the last regular-season contest for the LSU men’s basketball team.
The game will also be a de facto tie breaker for the Southeastern Conference Western Division No. 5 seed in the upcoming SEC tournament.
“No matter who we play, it’s going to be a tough game,” said freshman guard Matt Derenbecker. “I just feel like any game we play, it’s going to be a dog fight, and we have to come out and be prepared for whoever we have to play.”
LSU (11-19, 3-12) has played well in the first half of its previous two games, leading Vanderbilt by two at the half and trailing at Georgia by five. But the Tigers struggled down the stretch, losing both games by 21 and 20 points, respectively.
“I thought we got off to a very, very good start against Georgia,” said LSU coach Trent Johnson. “But then at the end of the half … we took a couple bad shots. But they’re talented and they’re skilled.”
Auburn (10-19, 3-11) enters the game with the same number of conference wins as LSU, but Auburn heads to Baton Rouge riding a tidal wave of momentum after overcoming a 20-point deficit Wednesday night to beat Ole Miss.
The Rebels led the game, 38-18, with a little more than two minutes remaining in the first half and went into the locker room with a 41-25 halftime lead.
Auburn rallied in the second half for a 76-73 win.
“Without question, coach [Tony] Barbee has done a heck of a job,” Johnson said. “They have some athletes, they have some experience, and usually when you inherit a program, you inherit players with a learning curve and everything they’re doing there is on the fly, and they’ve just gotten better.”
A positive of late for LSU has been the play of junior forward Storm Warren.
Warren posted 12 points and six rebounds Wednesday night in Athens, Ga., a solid performance following his career high 24-point outing Feb. 26 against Vanderbilt.
“He’s got in a good rhythm. He’s shooting the ball with confidence,” Johnson said. “He’s the Storm that we expected going into this year. It’s just been unfortunate for him, the things he’s had to go through this year.”
Though the game does have some implication on postseason seedings, Johnson is only interested in what his team accomplishes.
“The goal is real short and simple,” Johnson said. “You want to be as good as you can at the start of the year, and you want to be as good as you can at the end of the season so you can compete at a high level.”
The Tigers’ next game after Auburn will be Thursday in the SEC tournament. Their opponent will be determined based on the outcome of Saturday’s games.
 
 
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Contact Rob Landry at [email protected]