The 2010 women’s basketball season has involved an identity crisis of sorts for the team.
 
The Lady Tigers break for the semester with a 5-4 record, but it wasn’t easy, as they had to overcome losing their opening two games for the first time since the 1975 season, and they lost to in-state rival Tulane in heartbreaking fashion six days later.
 
It was the 54-52 Tulane defeat that stung the most. The Nov. 23 loss snapped LSU’s 33-game winning streak against in-state opponents that dated back to 1999. LSU junior forward LaSondra Barrett did not play in the game to attend her                          grandmother’s funeral.
 
LSU junior guard Destini Hughes had a chance to tie the game with one second left after sophomore guard Adrienne Webb pulled LSU within one point, but Hughes missed both attempts and left the Lady Tigers with a sour taste in their mouths.
 
“Right now I’m really struggling with my team,” LSU coach Van Chancellor said after the game.
 
Freshman guard Jeanne Kenney, who has seen the most action of the three freshmen on the team, was disheartened after the game.
 
“Sometimes it’s a momentum killer, and sometimes it’s a motivation to kick some butt next time,” Kenney said. “We realize this feeling and how much it sucks, and we won’t let it happen again.”
 
The Lady Tigers then won three of their next four games against Lehigh, Howard and Nicholls with an 81-51 road loss to No. 1 Connecticut sandwiched between — their largest deficit of the season after beating Howard by the same margin of 30 points the day before.
 
The season kicked off on the road for the first time in five years Nov. 14 when LSU took on Big Ten opponent Northwestern.
 
Northwestern senior center Amy Jaeschke scored a game-high 28 points, but Chancellor was more concerned with his team’s poor shooting performance and allowing Northwestern to make 21 of 27 free throw attempts.
 
“Northwestern just executed their stuff, and we did not,” Chancellor said. “You can’t let another team shoot 27 free throws and expect to win.”
 
The Lady Tigers began in sluggish fashion, shooting 9-of-36 in the first half. LSU is No. 7 in the Southeastern Conference with 40.5 percent shooting for the season and No. 11 with 63.6 points per game.
 
They have been solid from 3-point range at No. 3 with 35.5 percent and defensively at No. 3 with 54.8 points allowed per game. They are No. 2 in field goal percentage defense with 33.2 percent allowed per game.
 
The Lady Tigers were still mired in their shooting hole in their home opener against Ohio State, their second straight Big Ten foe.
 
But this game was a lot closer, as Webb tied the score at 53-all with a 3-pointer with 52 seconds left, as LSU came back from an 11-point deficit. But LSU couldn’t hold on, and its eight-game home winning streak against non-conference opponents was halted in a 59-55 loss.
 
“I could live with this. I don’t like to lose, but I could live with tremendous effort and young players playing well,” Chancellor said. “Down the stretch we made some good plays. We just could not make enough of them.”
 
One play that changed the momentum of the game occurred after Webb tied the game at 50-all with 2:09 left. LSU thought Ohio State had called timeout, and the Buckeyes made a wide-open shot to take the lead again. LSU then drew a technical foul for having six players on the court when Barrett tried to substitute into the game.
 
Webb has started all nine games so far and has shot 41.6 percent overall (47-of-113) and 41.3 percent from 3-point range (26-of-63), in leading the team with 14.1 points per game. Junior forward Taylor Turnbow leads the team with 15 blocks.
 
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