**BATON ROUGE –** The LSU men’s basketball team will head Friday on an NBA-style road trip playing two games over the Mardi Gras holiday break.
The trip starts with a trip to Knoxville to face the Tennessee Volunteers on Saturday at 5 p.m. CT at Thompson Boling Arena at Food City Center at what is expected to be a sellout crowd to watch the Vols, coming off a 73-64 win at Mississippi State on Wednesday.
The game will be broadcast on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network (Guaranty Media Eagle 981. 1 FM in Baton Rouge) and televised on the SEC Network with Mike Morgan and Mark Wise.
The Tigers following the game will stay on the road with school closed for Mardi Gras and travel to Austin, Texas to prepare for Tuesday’s contest with the University of Texas.
LSU will be looking to get its momentum back after a 92-61 loss to Arkansas in which the Razorbacks played an outstanding game, shooting over 50 percent from the floor and getting a majority of their points in the paint.
Marquel Sutton had 18 points to lead LSU in the game with Pablo Tamba scoring 11. Robert Miller III had a good effort inside for the Tigers, scoring 10 points for his third double figure game of the season. LSU’s leading SEC scorer, Max Mackinnon, was only able to play 20 minutes before leaving the game with left knee pain.
His status will be updated on the SEC Availability Report Friday evening but the injury is not expected at this time to keep him from playing.
Tennessee is now 7-4 in the SEC after the road victory with Ja’Kobi Gillespie leading the Vols with 18 points. Nate Ament added 16 points and J. P. Estrella 12. Bishop Boswell had eight assists and seven rebounds for Tennessee.
The Vols had a 42-24 advantage in paint points and 46-31 in rebounds. The Vols shot 43.5 percent from the floor with three treys and a good 15-of-18 at the free throw line.
Gillespie leads the team in scoring at 18.5 points a game with Ament at 71.5 average.