After lacking leadership on the floor through its first six games, the LSU women’s basketball team found two leaders — senior guard DaShawn Harden and sophomore guard Raigyne Moncrief — in its 73-59 victory against Louisiana Tech on Wednesday night.
The leadership of Harden and Moncrief set the tone for the Lady Tigers (3-4) on both ends of the floor and helped propel LSU to its best offensive performance, which ended a three-game losing skid.
“I was very pleased with the start of the game in the first half,” said LSU coach Nikki Caldwell. “Our defensive intensity really set the tone. You can see the play action we had worked on in practice over the past four days.”
Throughout the season, LSU has depended on its defensive pressure to ignite its struggling offense, which has shot an average of only 35.6 percent from the field through its first six games.
The Lady Tigers started off slow offensively, scoring just four points in the first six minutes of play, until Harden sparked the offense with a 3-pointer that allowed LSU to take over the game.
LSU’s found its offensive rhythm and shot a season-best 50 percent from the floor in the first half.
Although Harden led the Lady Tigers in scoring in the first half with eight points, Moncrief’s ability to drive the basket allowed the passing lanes to open up, which led to seven assists in the first half.
“It just happened,” Moncrief said.” I try to take the best shot for the team. I wasn’t going in just to make a layup. I wanted to go in and bring in the defense, then kick out to the open players like DaShawn or [freshman guard Jenna Deemer]. I just had to make the layup when I got there and had the chance to shoot.”
Defensively, LSU shut down Louisiana Tech’s offense, allowing the Lady Techsters to shoot only 7.1 percent from the floor in the first half.
Despite ending the first half with the offense looking the best it has all season, LSU slipped back into old habits of being careless with the basketball to start the second half.
“In the second half, our intensity let down a little bit,” Caldwell said. “Louisiana Tech really raised their energy and intensity, but we held on. We made plays when we needed to. This team is, again, growing. We’re getting better as each game goes on.”
The Lady Tigers committed eight turnovers in the first eight minutes of the second half, just one less than they gave away in the entire first half.
The turnovers stalled LSU’s offense early, and the Lady Techsters took advantage by mounting a 15-6 run during the first eight minutes of the second half.
After scoring eight points through the first 30 minutes, Moncrief took over the game, scoring nine of 11 points for the Lady Tigers during a four-minute stretch in the second half.
“[Moncrief’s] taking on more of a leadership role by being a great basketball player,” Caldwell said. “One of the great attributes of a great basketball player is their ability to make their teammates look good. That’s what she did tonight.”
The Lady Tigers look to take the momentum from this win through its 11-day break for finals and fuel improvement through practice. LSU’s next contest will be against Southeastern Louisiana on Dec. 14.