Coming out for its last exhibition game Sunday afternoon with the start of the regular season less than a week away, the LSU women’s basketball team’s goal was simple: improvement.
The Lady Tigers were successful in their goal to show clear progress from the first exhibition — a 22-point victory against Loyola-New Orleans last Wednesday — with a decisive 96-35 victory against Mississippi College.
“This game today was really about an LSU team taking some of thing we talked about regarding our last game and trying to be better,” said LSU coach Nikki Caldwell. “I felt like we accomplished that in many different areas.”
From the first minute of play, LSU’s defense came out aggressively. Sophomore guard Rina Hill forced the Choctaws’ first turnover with a steal less than 30 seconds into the game.
In the first half, LSU’s defense was smothering, allowing only 20 points.
The Lady Tigers effectively used full-court pressure to cause three 10- second half-court violations in the first half alone.
“We just get the momentum, and once we get past half court, we just stay with it because we can’t get out of it,” said sophomore guard Jasmine Rhodes. “We are just going to keep working at it, but we are getting better at it.”
LSU’s defensive pressure created opportunities for the Lady Tigers to force turnovers.
In their two exhibition games, the Lady Tigers have averaged 20 steals per game, while their opponents average 35 turnovers a game.
LSU’s defense moved more cohesively as a unit against Mississippi College than it did against Loyola.
“We put a lot of work into it, and I feel like all of that work is paying off,” said freshman forward Stephanie Amichia. “We’re moving as a unit. It’s not this person moving with someone else staggering to get there.”
The biggest part of LSU’s improvement and effectiveness in the press comes from a focus on communication.
“I’m not going to lie, I’ve been the quiet one,” Amichia said. “I get scared, and I don’t want to speak. But when I do speak up, it makes that much of a difference. As soon as you realize that individually, everyone buys into it. It showed today because we worked together from communication.”
Offensively, the Lady Tigers were led in scoring by players coming off the bench. Non- starters outscored the starters by 14 points.
Freshman guard Jenna Deemer, senior guard DaShawn Harden, Rhodes and Amichia all posted double-digit scoring performances coming off the bench.
As a team, LSU shot 58.2 percent from the field. In the first half, the Lady Tigers were a perfect 3-for-3 from three.
Deemer led the Lady Tigers in 3-point shooting in both exhibitions, hitting a combined 7-of-10 attempts from behind the line.
“Offensively, when you can look at a stat sheet and you shoot a high percentage not only from the field, but you have a balanced attack from all your players contributing in some form or fashion,” Caldwell said. “This is definitely a step in the right direction.”
You can reach Morgan Prewitt on Twitter @kmprewitt_TDR.