LITTLE ROCK, ARK. — Lady Tigers’ fans followed the basketball team to Little Rock, Ark. to watch them play in the Southeastern Conference tournament.
Computer engineering freshmen Marketa Remo and Ashley Robinson and elementary education junior Terika McGowan drove eight and a half hours from Baton Rouge Thursday afternoon to watch the games.
They sat in the first row Saturday as the Lady Tigers played Vanderbilt.
Another group of students did double-duty in Little Rock. They came for an academic conference and stayed for a basketball game.
“When I was told about the conference, I knew it and the SEC tournament were in Little Rock,” said Cody Juneau, a general studies senior. “I figured I’d go to both and kill two birds with one stone. The women’s basketball team needs just as much support as the men, if not more.”
Mass communication junior Sarah Bell, came for the same conference but was dragged to the basketball game.
“This is the first game I’ve ever been to in my entire life, since grade school,” she said.
Juneau, Bell and the two students with them couldn’t stay for the championship game Sunday. The drive back to Baton Rouge is too long, Juneau said.
Most fans came to watch all three games the Lady Tigers played.
Shannon Wilson, a Baton Rouge resident, and Aimee Welch, a class of 2000 alumna, painted their faces purple and gold, something they do not normally do for the Lady Tigers home games.
“It’s the first time and probably the last,” said Welch.
The basketball team asked Alec Lundberg, a management junior, to come to the SEC tournament.
He works for the Lady Tigers as a manager, and they wanted him to come support the team.
Casey Potts, a kinesiology junior, is on the basketball practice squad.
“I asked if I could get free tickets,” he said. “I wouldn’t miss it.”
Many LSU fans watched Tennessee play Mississippi State Saturday before the Lady Tigers’ game. Most fans wanted Mississippi to win so that LSU would not face Tennessee, the No. 1 ranked team and one of the Lady Tigers’ few losses.
As she watched Tennessee play Mississippi State, Judy Coble, a Tennessee resident, said she was cheering for both teams, but the next game, Lady Tigers versus Vanderbilt, would be different.
“I’ve been a friend of Sue Gunther for 45 years,” she said. “I played ball with her back when she was playing ball. I will not cheer for Vanderbilt — and I live in Nashville.”
Nancy LeBlanc, from Baton Rouge, did cheer for Mississippi State.
“We cheer for Mississippi because Mississippi cheers for us,” LeBlanc said. “In softball, they cheered for us when they needed us, so I cheer for them.”
Donald LeBlanc had another idea.
“I would rather beat Tennessee ourselves,” he said.