After a tough loss to No. 16 Georgia in Athens, the LSU women’s basketball team hosts South Carolina Sunday at 2 p.m. in the PMAC.
That is good news for LSU (16-3, 4-1 Southeastern Conference), which had its 15-game winning streak ended with the loss, because the Lady Tigers are 24-1 at home during the past two seasons.
Their last loss was to No. 3 Tennessee 68-65, a game the Lady Tigers led in the final minute.
Senior point guard Temeka Johnson, who is averaging 12.1 points and 7.7 assists per game, said she is excited to be back in front of the home crowd, especially after the 61-55 loss to UGA.
“It’s always good to be at home and play in front of the home crowd,” Johnson said. It keeps us up tempo. We let Georgia get the momentum back on their home court and they won the game.”
Johnson said the team worked on fundamentals and fixing mental errors from the previous game in practice, and everyone is clear on what needs to be done to win.
“Once we get up, we have to learn to stay up,” she said. “We can’t keep allowing the other team to get back in the game.”
South Carolina is led by senior guard Christina Ciocan, who averages 13.2 points, 7.4 assists and 5.8 rebounds.
Along with Ciocan, the Lady Gamecocks (9-9, 0-5 SEC) have four other starters who average double figures in scoring, including Kelly Morrone (12.5 points) and 6-foot-5 freshman forward Iva Sliskovic (11.9 points, 7.4 rebounds) from Croatia.
LSU associate coach Pokey Chatman said Ciocan does a good job of leading USC’s transition play and containing her and the team’s post players will be LSU’s main focus.
“They have one of the best point guards in the country, in terms of leading her team and transition game,” Chatman said. “Like most teams we play, their interior play out-sizes us, but we’ve been successful with that.”
Sophomore Seimone Augustus, the Lady Tigers’ leading scorer (17.7) and rebounder (6.3), said the home game is a great way to bounce back from a tough road loss.
“We had a tough game that we thought we should have won, so this is going to be a game where we get ourselves back together,” Augustus said.
Chatman said South Carolina will present several matchup problems, but if the Lady Tigers execute better on both ends of the court, things will fall into place.
“[South Carolina’s] a team looking for some positive play and a win, and I’m sure after our loss they think we’re a little bit vulnerable right now,” Chatman said.
She said the home-court advantage should also be in play for LSU, which has not played in the PMAC since Jan. 15, and it may help the Lady Tigers’ shooting woes.
“I think that’s why the coach tries to schedule as many home games as possible,” Chatman said. “Some of it’s mental, but when you get the home crowd behind you and the friendly rims and the court you’re used to practicing, it helps.
“If you can take a positive from 32 percent [shooting against Georgia], it’s that they were good shots and hopefully the confines of home will help that percentage a little bit.”