STANFORD, Calif. — LSU and Texas face off for the second time this season in the NCAA West Regional Finals at 8 p.m. CST on ESPN.
It is the No. 1 seed versus the No. 2 seed in what LSU head coach Sue Gunter calls an “unbelievably tough region.”
LSU (30-3) plays in its third Elite Eight while Texas (28-5) enters its eighth. The Lady Tigers look to end Texas’ 16-game winning streak, the nation’s longest.
The Lady Tigers see this game as the next step to the Final Four but are not looking past the Lady Longhorns.
“It’s great to be in the Elite Eight, but we’re not satisfied with getting here,” said senior forward DeTrina White. “We just want to finish and try to make it to the Final Four. First, we have to put all our focus on Texas and not overlook them.”
In the prior meeting, LSU routed Texas, 76-58, on Dec. 28 in Baton Rouge. LSU came back from a three-point halftime deficit to win.
Senior center Aiysha Smith led four Lady Tigers in double digits with 19 points in the game, and White scored 16 points and pulled down 12 rebounds.
Smith said having seen Texas before will not necessarily give either team more of an advantage than the other.
“Obviously both teams have gotten better,” Smith said. “We’re going to come out and play our same game.”
LSU said it will focus its defense more on the perimeter with junior point guard Jamie Carey in the lineup, who missed the first matchup because of mononucleosis.
In the first meeting this season, Texas used more of a post game, going inside to score.
Carey shoots 43 percent from 3-point range, averages 10.6 points per game and has a 2.33 assist-to-turnover ratio.
“She’s just the person that runs that court, that directs their traffic,” said LSU freshman guard Seimone Augustus of Carey. “You can’t mess up and be somewhere you’re not supposed to be; she’ll find an open player.”
White is not overlooking the Longhorns’ inside game just because Carey is in the game.
“[Texas has] great outside shooters, but, also, we have to play the inside because they are going to go in,” White said.
White knows Texas head coach Jody Conradt thinks LSU dominated in the paint last time and expects Texas to show they have a paint presence too.
“Can Jamie guard one of those post players? No. And they tore us up at the end of that game at Baton Rouge,” Conradt said. “So we’re going to have to do a lot better job in the paint. We’re going to have to be solid, and again, we’re going to play what I consider the best and most talented team in the country.”
Conradt is not just worried about LSU in the paint, she knows the Lady Tigers can make jump shots and is aware of Doneeka Hodges’ 3-point shooting ability.
“That’s what makes them good — they’re balanced,” Conradt said. “They can score from every position. It is a real challenge to be able to defend LSU.”
Gunter countered Conradt’s comments, saying Texas is a balanced team as well.
LSU and Texas carry similar statistics into the matchup.
Texas allows less points than LSU, 55.2 points versus 58.3, but LSU scores more points, averaging 76.8 points to the Longhorns’ 74.6.
Texas leads the 3-point contest with a 39.3 success rate, but LSU edges out the field goal percentage 49.3 percent to 44 percent.
LSU edges out Texas with less turnovers but also has less opponent turnovers. Defensively, LSU leads in steals, averaging 10.5 per game to Texas’ 10.1 but has a larger advantage in blocks, averaging 5.3 per game while Texas has 3.7.
“I think the game will be extremely competitive and very good,” Gunter said.
Junior point guard Temeka Johnson said she and the team are just ready to play.
“I think we’re going to come out and play hard and see what happens,” Johnson said. “We’re not afraid of anything. I think we’ll be ready for Texas just like we’re pretty sure Texas will be ready for us.”