The LSU men’s basketball team has seven losses this season.
The Tigers want to conclude the season by winning seven in a row.
LSU got off on the right foot with a 18-point win at Tennessee, but now the Tigers face a familiar foe.
After a bounce-back victory against the Volunteers on Saturday, LSU (18-7, 7-5 Southeastern Conference) returns to the court for a rematch against Texas A&M (17-7, 8-4 SEC) at 8 p.m. tonight in Reed Arena.
In the teams’ previous meeting this season, the Aggies overcame a 13-point, second-half deficit and dropped the Tigers, 67-64, Jan. 17 in the PMAC. But with postseason play a few games away, LSU junior guard Keith Hornsby said there’s more on the line this time around.
“These last six games are really important to us,” Hornsby said. “We want to make the [NCAA] Tournament. That’s obviously our goal. These six games are critical for that.”
If the Tigers play like they did against Tennessee when they visit College Station, Texas, they likely won’t have much trouble reaching their goal for season’s end.
LSU built a 28-point cushion in the second half against the Vols before cruising to 73-55 victory in its first game since an emotional, two-point loss to No. 1 Kentucky. LSU sophomore forward Jarell Martin said he hopes it’ll be the first of seven consecutive wins to end the regular season.
“Before we played the Tennessee game, we [told each other] we have seven games left [and] we need to go 7-0 from here,” Martin said. “We’ll take it one game at a time and try to get the victory.”
The Tigers will have their hands full trying to get to win No. 2.
Texas A&M’s two leading scorers — junior guard Danuel House (14.1 ppg) and junior swingman Jalen Jones (13.7 ppg) — were thorns in LSU’s side during the first meeting, pouring in a combined 36 points in the Aggies’ win.
But Tigers coach Johnny Jones said his team was as responsible for the loss as House and Jalen Jones were.
“I thought we were our own worst enemy there in the middle part of the second half,” Johnny Jones said. “We took some ill-advised shots early in the shot clock, shots we can probably get later in the clock. We didn’t get paint touches. We missed those shots, and they got a couple of really good runs out in transition.”
In the second half of the loss to Texas A&M, LSU turned the ball over nine times and made only one of its 13 attempts from 3-point range.
But the Tigers are playing differently than the team that blew a 46-33, second-half lead to the Aggies.
LSU has won two of its last three games, with the lone loss coming to Kentucky. The Tigers have scored 94 points in the paint during that span and have shot 41 percent (16-of-39) from 3-point territory.
LSU sophomore guard Tim Quarterman, who will likely be tasked with guarding House on defense, said the Tigers are succeeding because they’re playing together.
“I think we’re playing as a team every minute out there on the floor,” Quarterman said. “There are no more selfish plays.”
LSU is riding high after its most complete win in league play. The Tigers’ 27-point lead over Tennessee at halftime was their largest of the season, seven points more than their previous high of 20 against the College of Charleston in late December.
But Hornsby said he’d rather his teammates remember their defeat to Texas A&M than their dominating performance against the Vols.
“We just have to remember that game [against the Aggies] and how we felt after that game,” Hornsby said. “That was a pretty bad one with how much they were celebrating after the game.”
For Martin, two words suffice.
“Two words that pop out in my mind is ‘pay back’,” Martin said. “Definitely want to get this victory from [Texas A&M] for beating us at home. We want to go into their house and get the victory.”