Lady Tigers open play in SEC Tourney
With the conclusion of an injury-riddled regular season, the Lady Tiger basketball team (15-10, 8-6 SEC) limps into the SEC tournament at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville, Tenn.
LSU enters the tournament as the fourth seed and has a bye in the first round, which head coach Sue Gunter said should help the team.
“Just by virtue of the amount of players that we have, [the bye] is tremendously important,” she said. “It gives us a chance to rest up a little.”
The Lady Tigers will face Kentucky tonight at 6 p.m. after the 12th-seeded Lady Wildcats pulled off an upset against fifth-seeded Mississippi State Thursday, 75-72.
Second-team All-SEC selection SeSe Helm, who averages 17.0 points per game, led Kentucky in scoring with 19, followed by Shambrica Jones with 18.
Injuries have plagued the Lady Tigers all season. Thought to be the team’s most valuable player before the year started, Detrina White has not even set her fractured foot on the court this season.
Starting point guard Kisha James was lost eight games into the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
Injuries to key role players have limited the Lady Tigers to only seven healthy players on the roster.
The good news for LSU is Aiysha Smith has stepped into the spotlight and filled in more than enough for the injured players.
Smith, a junior college transfer, was named to the All-SEC first team after leading the Lady Tigers in scoring (16.4 points per game) and rebounding (7.9 rebounds per game).
Sophomore Temeka Johnson also has done well in filling in for James as the team’s point guard.
Johnson leads the SEC in assists, averaging 7.68 per game, and in assist-to-turnover ratio.
Earlier this season, LSU defeated Kentucky, 75-59 on the road, but the Lady Tigers have struggled recently in games away from the PMAC.
In fact, the Lady Tigers’ last road win was the match against Kentucky (8-19, 1-12 SEC) just more than a month ago.
Since then, they have dropped road games to Arkansas, Vanderbilt and Alabama.
Gunter said it’s different playing on the road in tournaments compared to the regular season.
“This is a neutral floor,” Gunter said. “It’s not like going into Alabama, Arkansas or Vanderbilt. It’s a new arena and we’ve never played there before. It’s a whole new season.”
In LSU’s victory over Kentucky earlier this year, four Lady Tigers scored in double figures led by Doneeka Hodges, a second-team All-SEC selection, with 17.
Gunter said she has not implemented any changes in practice in preparation for the tournament.
“Our system is pretty well in place,” she said. “We just need to work on fine-tuning. The biggest thing for us is to get defensive boards and prevent the other team from getting second chance points.”
If the LSU wins its match against Kentucky, it will most likely face top-seeded Tennessee (24-3, 13-1 SEC), who is ranked third in the nation, Saturday. The Vols face ninth-seeded Georgia at noon today.
Ronnie Richard