LSU women’s basketball coach Van Chancellor said starting junior Andrea Kelly at point guard was “the biggest gamble of my coaching career,” after LSU’s 59-56 victory Sunday against Kentucky.That gamble paid off, and Chancellor said he was surprised by her success because of her lack of playing time at the point guard position. He said Kelly will start in the Lady Tigers’ second straight Southeastern Conference road game at South Carolina (9-10, 1-5) tonight.Kelly scored 15 points on 5-of-12 shooting with no turnovers in 39 minutes of play against Kentucky. She accounted for all of LSU’s 3-point field goals.”There isn’t anybody more shocked at her play than I was,” he said. “When you play a player at point [guard] who hadn’t practiced at point [guard] but an hour since she’s been here, everybody on the staff said, ‘This is a waste of time, Coach.'”Kelly said she was thankful for the chance to make her first career start in an LSU uniform.”I’m just grateful for the opportunity,” Kelly said. “My first thought was … what I could do to help the team. The team supported me, got me involved in the offense and encouraged me.”LSU (10-7, 3-2) stands to have sophomore guard Katherine Graham back on the court in a limited role Thursday, Chancellor said. Graham missed the last three games with a sprained left knee.Graham was active in practice Tuesday, and Chancellor said he expects her to play about four minutes against the Gamecocks.”She will play a limited amount of time this Thursday,” he said. “The biggest thing when you get a knee hurt is the confidence to come back. Her knee is probably as sound as it’s ever been. You’d like to have another couple of practices with a player before you play her like this.”Graham said Tuesday she felt “about 95 percent” back to health.”I feel pretty good for my first day back,” she said. “It’s a process that’s going to get better with time. I’m just trying to work my way back to where I left off … I just need to get over the hurdle of being timid.”One player Chancellor said will continue to come off the bench for LSU is senior forward Kristen Morris. She scored 8 points on 4-of-9 shooting with 10 rebounds Sunday.”She had the best practice she’s had since she’s been here [before leaving for Kentucky], hands down,” Chancellor said. “We’re going to start our usual lineup, but she’s going in pretty early.”LSU leads the SEC in scoring defense and is No. 2 in the nation behind Kansas State, allowing just 51 points per game. South Carolina is No. 10 in scoring defense in the conference.The Lady Tigers also lead the SEC in field-goal percentage defense at 34.3 percent. The Gamecocks are last in the conference at 41.2 percent.”Our defense is like a team defensive effort,” Kelly said. “It’s not one person that gives speed; it’s the whole team. And we follow our game plan — that’s one of the main things we do. We did pretty well [with the screen defense].”Freshman forward LaSondra Barrett brings a streak of seven consecutive games scoring in double figures into the South Carolina contest.Barrett said Kelly’s ability to convert 3-point shots is a key contribution to the Lady Tigers’ game.”We knew she was capable of hitting 3s back-to-back like that,” Barrett said about Kelly’s performance against Kentucky. “I’m just glad she stepped up at the right time. We’re going to need her for the rest of the season.”Junior guard Allison Hightower said it is crucial for the team to keep the strength and toughness from Sunday’s win on its side heading into tonight.”We have a lot of momentum coming off the Kentucky game,” Hightower said. “We stayed together in that game. So as long as we continue to do that, play hard and play smart when we go to South Carolina, we ought to do well.”—-Contact Rachel Whittaker at [email protected]