After a loss at home against No. 5 South Carolina on Jan. 15, the LSU women’s basketball team looks to rebound against Kentucky on Thursday at 7 p.m. in the PMAC.
“It’s going to take a whole lot of discipline on our part,” said LSU coach Nikki Fargas. “You want to get as many wins as you can and you want to put down some of those giants like South Carolina and Mississippi State and obviously UConn … We don’t have any bad losses in our resume which is great in that regard but as a competitor you want to eliminate as many of those as you can and have a lot of wins.”
The Lady Tigers (14-4, 3-2 Southeastern Conference) prepare to face Kentucky’s two scoring leaders, guard Makayla Epps and forward Evelyn Akhator.
Epps is the sixth-leading scorer in the SEC, averaging 16.7 points per game while shooting 46.6 percent from the field. Akhator averages 15 points per game.
In Kentucky’s last game, an 82-61 win against Georgia, Epps and Akhator score a combined 37 points.
Heading into the matchup against Kentucky, LSU senior guard Jasmine Rhodes said the Lady Tigers are trying to consistently play for all four quarters.
“Sometimes we have seconds where we ease up,” Rhodes said. “We have to keep fighting for the whole 40 minutes and not have any regrets at the end like ‘maybe I should have done this, maybe I should have done that … just keep going for 40, then we’ll know we did our all to come out with the win.”
LSU has its own duo of scorers for Kentucky to worry about.
Sophomore guard Chloe Jackson averages 14.9 points per game, and junior guard Raigyne Moncrief averages 14.8 points per game.
Moncrief, who played for 33 minutes in LSU’s last contest against South Carolina, said she’s used to playing long minutes.
“I try to know when to pace myself during the game,” Moncrief said. “When I can pace myself during the game. But you kind of get used to it because you play all the time … but you will feel it tomorrow.”
Rhodes and Moncrief both agreed the team still have some things to work on despite their success this season.
“Our biggest challenge is going to be transition game,” Rhodes said. “Don’t let them get out easy, don’t let them get easy buckets in the paint, contest every shot and hustle.
“Definitely our rebounding ­— that’s been our biggest struggle so far this entire season,” she said. “Boxing out rebounding, not letting the other team get second chance points but us getting as many second chance points as we can. On the offensive glass in rebounding.”
Some of the teams the Lady Tigers have faced have been taller, but size doesn’t matter, Fargas said.
“We do try to play with a lot of heart and a lot of hustle,” she said. “Energy plays, that goes a long way, but collectively as a unit we’re really trying to focus in on playing our defensive scheme with five people guarding the basketball as opposed to it being one-on-one.”