LSU coach Sue Gunter has petitioned the Lady Tigers to establish an inside presence since day one of the season.
Tuesday night in LSU’s 78-68 triumph against No. 15 Rutgers, she got more than she wished for.
Junior forward Tillie Willis recorded the first double-double of her career against the Scarlet Knights. Willis made her presence felt on the boards and on the scoreboard, recording 14 points and 10 rebounds.
But when Rutgers began to concentrate on the inside, Doneeka Hodges made the Scarlet Knights pay from beyond the 3-point line.
Up until the Rutgers game, Hodges had yet to find her range this season. She started the first half of the game 1-of-8 from the field and 0-5 from 3-point range.
But the second half was a different story. While Rutgers shifted focus to the inside game of the Lady Tigers, Hodges started to heat up from the outside.
Hodges scored a team-high 23 points for the game, 21 of which came in the second half. Hodges nailed three straight 3-pointers in the second half to help LSU pull away from Rutgers. She finished 3-of-4 from 3-point range in the second half.
Gunter said the coaches have done a great job of encouraging Hodges to continue taking good shots – and it paid off in a big way Tuesday night.
“You’ve got to know she’s a good shooter, and we know she’s a good shooter,” Gunter said. “The shots she’s taken are good shots, and so you’ve got to encourage her to put them up. I think getting back to the PMAC was a cure for her. She really stepped up in the second half.”
In practice all week Gunter emphasized the presence of Rutgers’ junior guard Cappie Pondexter. Gunter said Pondexter is one of the better guards in the country and one of the toughest she has had to prepare for.
But Tuesday night, Hodges got the best of Pondexter. Not only did Hodges produce offensively, the onus was on her most of the night to defend Pondexter.
In the first half, Hodges helped contain Pondexter, allowing the Lady Tigers to jump out of the gate early. Pondexter shot 1-of-9 from the field in the first half, recording only two points.
Though Pondexter finished the night with 18 points, seven of those points came in the last 3:48 of the game – a credit to the job Hodges did guarding her all night long.
“She did a great job on [Pondexter],” Gunter said. “And [Pondexter] surely is a great player. I think that’s obvious when you watch the way she shoots the basketball. I think we did a good job on Pondexter, about as good as anybody could do.”
Gunter said the hot shooting by Hodges and the emergence of Willis on the inside forced Rutgers’ hand defensively. Willis played 33 minutes on the inside for the Lady Tigers.
“We had to have an inside presence, and we got a little bit tonight [from Willis],” Gunter said. “We’ve still got a ways to go, and it’s definitely a work in progress. It looks a lot better right now than it did a week ago.”
Willis said she felt the time was right for her to step up and take advantage of her opportunity.
“[Coach Gunter] emphasized [establishing an inside presence] all week,” Willis said. “Like Seimone [Augustus] and Treynell [Clavelle] said, ‘Be warriors on the boards, don’t give them second chances.'”