When LSU laces up its sneakers Sunday in Nashville, Tenn., against Vanderbilt, LSU coach Nikki Caldwell will be looking for her team to accomplish a goal that has eluded them all season — forty minutes of complete basketball.
Even during its 10-game win streak, LSU has struggled at times in every game this season — whether with turnovers, shooting or rebounding.
“This team has shown where they’ve turned it around and really played in a tough way,” Caldwell said Jan. 17. “There’s been a lot of games where we’ve been down nine, 10, 12 points. We’ve just been tough in stretches and got ourselves back in the game, and ultimately we’ve put ourselves in position to win those games.”
That rang true in LSU’s last game on the road against an East Tennessee State team that came in with a 5-14 record.
The Lady Tigers were down by as many as 12 at one point early in the first half and needed a second-half rally to send the game to
overtime and eventually steal a win.
LSU is heading to Tennessee for the third time since Jan. 19, and the team will need to come closer to achieving a complete game to return to Baton Rouge with a win.
The Commodores come into the game with a 15-5 record, thanks in large part to the offensive firepower of sophomore guard Christina Foggie.
Foggie uses a deadly touch from long range to average 18.4 points per game for the Commodores this season.
She scored a career-high 34 points in a win over No. 15 Georgia on Thursday night, connecting on 7-of-16 three-point-attmepts.
The sophomore is shooting 48 percent from beyond the arc this season — just under her overall shooting percentage of 48.6.
But despite the Lady Tigers’ recent struggles, they’re only giving up an average of 50.7 points per game defensively this season and will benefit from the return of sophomore guard Jeanne Kenney, who is returning from a concussion she suffered in the loss to Tennessee.
With Kenney back on the court, LSU should be able to return to a two-guard starting lineup, which could help mitigate the turnover problem that has been worsened recently by the team’s dearth of guards.
With juniors Adrienne Webb and Bianca Lutley the only guards on the roster, the Lady Tigers have been forced to use forwards to
handle the ball in Kenney’s absence.
In the two games without Kenney, the Lady Tigers turned over the ball 27 times against Arkansas and 13 times in the first half against East Tennessee State before taking better care of the ball in the second half.
Caldwell said eliminating the turnovers would go a long way toward giving LSU its first complete game this season and would make a much-needed conference win easier to attain.
“We’ve just got to do that now for 40 minutes. We can’t wait and do it for 20 or 25 minutes,” Caldwell said. “If you do it once, twice, three times, I know it’s in you to do it more than that.”
 
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