The LSU women’s basketball team does not need to look at the Top 25 polls or hear the conventional talk of “a team on the rise” as a motivation source for tonight.
They can simply flash back to April 3, 2005, and the RCA Dome in Indianapolis.
With just fewer than 10 minutes left in the second half of the 2005 Final Four game, the Lady Tigers were clinging to a 47-41 lead over Baylor. But the Lady Bears used an 18-4 run late in the game to slam the door on LSU’s chances of a national championship berth.
“It’s just kind of a blur. It just happened so fast,” senior forward Seimone Augustus said. “One moment, you’re up and then the next moment you lost, and you’re not going to the national championship game.”
Tonight, LSU (17-1, 6-0) hosts defending national champion Baylor (15-3, 5-3 Big 12) at 6 p.m. at the PMAC. The first meeting between the two teams since last year’s women’s NCAA Final Four will be nationally televised on ESPN2.
“If you’re not ready for this, you don’t have a pulse,” Augustus said. “There’s nothing more that needs to be said.”
Senior guard Scholanda Hoston said the memories from the previous game are still fresh in players’ minds.
“If you can’t get up for this game, then you don’t need to be playing,” Hoston said.
The Lady Tigers’ defensive game plan begins with Baylor’s all-American Sophia Young, who is seventh in the nation in scoring at 21 points per game.
“Sophia is a very athletic player – she’s going to run the floor, she’s going to get to the rim, she’ll step out and shoot and she’ll drive,” sophomore center Sylvia Fowles said. “I don’t think we’re going to stop her, but just slow her down, block her out, contest every shot and just go at her for the whole 40 minutes.”
Augustus said their defense must make Young work hard for every point she gets.
“I have confidence in our defense,” Augustus said. “Sophia is a great player.”
LSU coach Pokey Chatman said the team’s defensive philosophy will not change for this game, and the Lady Tigers will play the same active, hands-on defense to cause deflections as they have the entire season.
“[Getting deflections] really sets an aggressive mentality,” Chatman said. “They have such good players with good vision. It’s more in line of trying to disrupt their vision and not seeing the court and contesting their shots.”
Offensively, Chatman said she needs her team to stick to their zone-offense principles because she expects Baylor to employ the same zone defense that frustrated the Lady Tigers in last year’s game.
“The zone offense principles never change – make two guard one, attack the baseline, reverse the ball,” Chatman said. “You can play a 2-3 [zone], you can play a 1-3-1 [zone] or you can play a 1-2-2 [zone]. Principles don’t change.”
Augustus said having success against Baylor’s defense starts in transition and follows with getting the basketball to Fowles in the post.
“Main thing is get out and get in transition, but we want to get Sylvia as many touches as possible,” Augustus said. “We don’t think that they can guard us in the post as far as [Fowles’] size. They have quickness and they have height, but getting her touches will open everything else for us.”
Hoston echoed Augustus’ thoughts and said effective post play will allow her and her teammates to have open shots.
“It starts on the perimeter,” Hoston said. “I think attacking gaps and looking inside and trying to get the ball into the post is going to be a big thing.”
 
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