Published Nov 8, 2019
No. 22 LSU opens basketball season Friday vs. Bowling Green
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Julie Boudwin  •  Death Valley Insider
Managing Editor
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@Julie_Boudwin

The LSU men's basketball team, ranked No. 22 in the preseason AP poll and the defending Southeastern Conference regular season champions, begins its 2019-20 season Friday night at 7 p.m. in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center against the Bowling Green Falcons.

The game will be broadcast on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network (which includes flagship Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge; Hot 92.9 FM and WWWL 1350 AM in New Orleans; KLWB 103.7 in Lafayette; and, KWKH 1130 AM in Shreveport. The broadcasts can also be heard on LSUsports.net/live, Radio.com, Sirius XM and TuneIn.).

Bowling Green, winners of 22 games a year ago, won its opener on Tuesday night against Tiffin, 94-73. The Tigers, the last team by an hour to open play among the 14 Southeastern Conference teams, is coming off an 83-70 victory on the road at Louisiana Tech last Saturday in an NCAA-charity exhibition game for tornado relief in Ruston and on the LA Tech campus.

In that game, six Tigers were in double figures scoring with Javonte Smart getting 18, Darius Days 16, Charles Manning Jr., 13, Emmitt Williams 12, Skylar Mays 11 and Trendon Watford 10 points and 10 rebounds. The Tigers shot 48.3 percent for the game and made 10 three-pointers while posting 22 assists on 29 made baskets.

Louisiana Tech out rebounded the Tigers, 48-47, but 20-10 on the offensive boards. LSU held the Bulldogs to just 32.1 percent from the field.

One disappointing part of the contest was that LSU shot just 57.7 percent from the free throw line or 57.7% percent. Last year, the Tigers shot 75.2 percent from the stripe and made over 600 free throws.

The Tigers will travel after this home opener to Richmond for a game with nationally-ranked VCU on Wednesday night (Nov. 13, 5 p.m. CT ESPN2) before returning home to host Nicholls on Saturday, Nov. 16. That game time will be 3 p.m. so fans can get home in time to watch the LSU football game at Ole Miss. LSU will also host Maryland-Baltimore County on Nov. 19 before traveling to Jamaica for the Jamaica Classic games on Nov. 22 and 2