BATON ROUGE, Sporting Alert – LSU and Alabama will look to strengthen their respective positions in the Southeastern Conference standings when they face-off on Wednesday night.
The Tigers (16-9, 9-3 SEC) currently share the lead in the conference with Kentucky with a 9-3 record and they will be hoping to maintain their good league form with another win.
The Crimson Tide (15-9), in the meantime, enter this matchup on a four-game winning streak, while winning five of their last six games to improve to 6-6 in conference play and sit in a good position to play postseason basketball.
A win over LSU in Baton Rouge, on Wednesday night, would certainly play a big part in Avery Johnson’s team push to make the NCAA tournament this season after defeating Texas A&M and Florida in their two outings.
Retin Obasohan, who is averaging a career-high in scoring, leads Alabama in that department with 16 points per game while shooting a team-best 45.9 percent from the floor.
The senior guard who is averaging 18 points per game over the last four games, is also pulling down 3.9 rebounds, dishing out 2.7 assists and picking off 1.3 steals per contest this term.
Obasohan has also scored in double-figures in the last nine games for the Crimson Tide while he’s 21 points shy of becoming the 49th Alabama player all-time to surpass 1,000 career points.
Meanwhile, LSU is being led by Ben Simmons, one of the frontrunners to not only win the SEC Player of the Year award but to also challenge for the National honor as well.
Entering this game, Simmons is leading the Tigers in all the major categories — averaging 19.3 points, 12.0 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 1.9 steals, 1.0 blocks per game and shooting 56.3 percent from the floor.
Simmons has scored in double-digits in 20 straight games while collecting 16 double-doubles already this campaign.
The talented freshman forward has received high praises from several college basketball coaches, pundits, and fellow players, but there are still some who believe he still needs to be more assertive and selfish if the Tigers are to make the NCAA tournament.
As a team, LSU is scoring 81.1 points per game and giving up 76.0 at the other end.
Alabama, in the meantime, isn’t lighting up the place with points on the board — averaging 67.5 points per game and allowing 67.0.
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