With three freshmen in the starting lineup for LSU, the young Lady Tigers certainly needed the shooting services of the recently struggling veteran guard Allison Hightower.Fortunately, she delivered with a career-high 19 points to lead LSU to a 63-47 win against Tulane in the PMAC.Hightower’s junior season hadn’t been pretty leading up to Monday night’s game against Tulane. In fact, coach Van Chancellor joked she “couldn’t throw one in the Atlantic Ocean” during exhibition play.The slump extended into the first game of the regular season, when Hightower shot 3-of-12 in the ESPN2-televised 63-52 loss to No. 16 Notre Dame.”He’s always telling me to shoot the ball, that it doesn’t matter if I’m 1-for-1,000 … just to shoot the ball,” Hightower said.It appeared Monday that Hightower might suffer another night of shooting woes when she opened 0-for-3 from the field.But Chancellor grew frustrated when she turned down open shots and threatened to bench her if she turned down one more.Hightower understood the message and finished 8-of-18 from the field while grabbing a team-high seven rebounds.Chancellor said the decision to start freshmen LaSondra Barrett, Courtney Jones and Destini Hughes was the first time he’d ever started three freshmen in his coaching career.All contributed, but it was Hightower who carried the load after the Lady Tigers opened sluggishly and held just a 16-14 advantage near the 11:00 mark of the first half.Her scoring surge helped LSU enter the half with a 14-point lead.Chancellor said the defensive effort was outstanding in the first half and reminiscent of last year’s Final Four team.Monday night also featured a revamped LSU offense with a motion scheme adapted from last year’s playbook. The motion is more five-player oriented than three-player oriented and is designed to bring the post players away from the basket.Chancellor said he made the change during an off-week that he considered the most productive since his arrival at LSU.”We just started running a new offense and strategy instead of our same old strategy,” Hightower said. “It’s just some motion, screening, moving and cutting.”Chancellor said he was encouraged by his young team’s ability to keep composure after a rocky season opener against Notre Dame.
 
 
 
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