The LSU women’s basketball team has had a slew of lineup changes in the couple of weeks, with senior Kristen Morris and junior Andrea Kelly consistently seeing more playing time.But a familiar face from early in the season will provide some stability in the starting lineup tonight against Arkansas.LSU sophomore guard Katherine Graham, who suffered a knee injury Jan. 14 and missed three conference games, is scheduled to start tonight for the first time since returning from injury. She said the team needs a new attitude if it wants to come away with another win against the Razorbacks.”We need to step it up and come into each game more assertive and more aggressive,” Graham said. “I felt we were playing not to lose instead of playing to win. Arkansas has gotten a lot better. We need to understand that — take advantage of every possession.”LSU women’s basketball coach Van Chancellor said his team is “through being young,” and will need a more mature mind set if the Lady Tigers want to walk away with its second win against the Razorbacks this season. LSU (11-8, 4-3) beat Arkansas, 62-42, in Fayetteville, Ark., in January.”Arkansas is playing ungodly well — I mean really well,” Chancellor said. “Their record might not show it, but they have played Auburn, Tennessee and Vanderbilt tooth and nail. They won at Mississippi State, who is a very good basketball team. This will be a tough test because we are playing an entirely different team [since we last faced them].”Chancellor said the Lady Tigers need to avoid repeating costly mistakes they’ve made on the court.”I would like for this team somehow to quit making the same mistakes over and over,” he said. “Bounce pass the ball to a post player on the break, and in 3-on-2 get a layup, not a 15-footer. We’re at a period in time right now when I don’t think we should be making these same mistakes we’ve been making.”And Chancellor hopes adding more experience to the lineup will help limit those mistakes. He said the Lady Tigers’ lone senior, forward Kristen Morris, has been a valuable force in practice for the Lady Tigers.”I thought Kristen Morris was outstanding today,” Chancellor said Wednesday. “She had a phenomenal practice.”Morris had her first significant action of the season when she came off the bench Jan. 25 against Kentucky. She scored eight points, 10 rebounds and a career-high four blocks in 23 minutes.She was LSU’s leading scorer with 14 points, one shy of her career high, on 6-of-12 shooting in Sunday’s loss to Auburn. She also had two blocks, seven rebounds and a career-high four steals.Morris said she is “just trying to leave a mark” on the team in her last season, and the Arkansas squad will make for a tough task in the teams’ second matchup this year.”We blew them out in their house,” Morris said. “But they’re playing a whole lot better than they were before. We can’t have another dropoff — Mississippi State was a loss we really didn’t want to take. We want to make sure we don’t have any more losses like that.” Morris acknowledged the team has sometimes struggled to play as one unit this season.”As a team, we’re not on the same page — I can admit that,” Morris said. “We all have to be determined when somebody makes a mistake or misses a block to get [the ball] back, get an offensive rebound or whatever to make up for a mishap we had.”Freshman forward LaSondra Barrett, who was named SEC Freshman of the Week, said older players like sophomore guard Katherine Graham and junior guard Allison Hightower have taken the team under their wing and encouraged them to stay together.”At certain times we are on the same page — when things are going [well], we are,” Barrett said. “Some of us may not realize [LSU women’s basketball] is a legacy here, so we have to keep playing and finish the season strong. We know what we’re capable of doing with the talent and people we have.”Barrett scored a career-high 27 points in LSU’s first game against Arkansas, a record for an LSU freshman in SEC play.—-Contact Rachel Whittacker at [email protected]
Women’s Basketball: Graham expected to start tonight against Arkansas
By Rachel Whittacker
Sports Writer
Sports Writer
February 5, 2009