The LSU men’s basketball team has already notched one victory against Ole Miss this season, but tomorrow’s contest carries a little more meaning.
The victor will have the inside track to a top-four seed and a first-round bye in the Southeastern Conference Tournament, which takes place March 11-15, while the loser will be on the outside looking in.
“You have to talk about where we sit in the standings, and this could put us in good position that we could be tied for that [No. 4] spot,” said LSU coach Johnny Jones. “But it’s the next game on our schedule, and that makes it just as important.”
The Tigers (20-8, 9-6 SEC) will look to extend their winning streak to three games and stifle the Rebels (19-9, 10-5 SEC) a second time when the conference rivals clash at 1 p.m. tomorrow at the PMAC.
LSU defeated Ole Miss, 75-71, on Jan. 14 at Tad Smith Coliseum, but the teams have followed different trajectories since that meeting.
The Rebels have won nine of their last 12 games, with victories against Texas A&M and a 96-82 win against then-No. 19 Arkansas. Since defeating Ole Miss, the Tigers have gone 7-5, with a pair of losses to lowly Mississippi State and Auburn.
Slowing down Ole Miss’s offense — which ranks fourth in the SEC at 73.0 points per game — will likely determine if the Tigers come out on top, said Jones.
“They’re one of the more prolific scoring teams,” Jones said. “They can score from a lot of different areas on the floor and have different guys that can put the ball in the basket.”
Like the first meeting, the Tigers’ focus will be to slow down sharp-shooting Stefan Moody, the SEC’s leading scorer in conference play at 18.7 points per game. The junior guard ranks second in SEC play in free throw percentage (89.7), fourth in 3-point percentage (38.5) and seventh in field goal percentage (43.4), putting him third among guards.
LSU junior guard Keith Hornsby disrupted Moody’s flow in the first meeting, holding the Rebels’ top scoring threat to 14 points and a 2-for-9 clip from deep.
However, Moody has erupted in recent weeks, averaging 20.1 points and draining 26 treys on 42 percent shooting in his last eight games. But Hornsby said his approach will be the same as the January meeting.
“We just have to try to do the same thing,” Hornsby said. “We know that he’s going to shoot [3-pointers]. Just have to contest him as best we can and drive them off the 3-point line.”
Jones said it’ll take a team effort to stymie Moody this time around.
“[Ole Miss] does a lot of actions for [Moody] and screening and trying to get him open, so guys have to be conscious of being in the sight line so he’s not getting easy catches or shot opportunities,” Jones said. “We’ll have different people help out on him. We can’t just give him one look.”
Aside from his defense, Hornsby was also the high-point man for LSU in the first meeting with 23. But sophomore forward Jarell Martin may have delivered the Tigers’ most efficient performance that night, knocking down nine of his 12 field goals for 18 points.
Getting to the paint early was Martin’s focus for the first meeting, something he said he’ll have to do again.
“I started off attacking the basket, getting to the rim and making plays at the rim,” Martin said. “I hit a few mid-range jump shots and got myself going. That’s what I have to do again.”
With the regular season winding down, every game carries a little more weight. But as they’ve done all season long, Jones said the Tigers will take it one game at a time — beginning with Ole Miss on Saturday.
“It’s our next game on our schedule,” Jones said. “It’s here at home, and it’ll have an importance all of its own to perform the right way in front of our fans and playing for them. We want to win as many games as we can, and we only have three other regular season opportunities to do that.”
You can reach David Gray on Twitter @dgray_TDR.