The LSU women’s basketball team had a season that exceeded expectations, as the Lady Tigers finished with an inspired Sweet 16 run in March, their first since 2008.
Undeterred by a slow start in Southeastern Conference play and short-handed roster, LSU (22-12, 10-6 SEC) finished the regular season on a six-game tear in which it defeated three top-15 teams.
“There was a period during this season where we could have tanked,” said LSU coach Nikki Caldwell in March. “They stayed the course. They matured. They grew together.”
Despite an early exit in the SEC Tournament, the Lady Tigers grabbed a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament because of their success down the stretch.
LSU survived a first-round scare by edging out 11th-seeded Green Bay and advancing to the Sweet 16 after upsetting No. 3 seed Penn State with a roster of just seven players in front of a home crowd at the PMAC.
“I’m extremely proud of this team,” Caldwell said in a March news release. “We have battled, and we have hit adversity, and we have been challenged. These young ladies came together and decided to fight fight for one another, and they put LSU back on the map as a dominant program.”
That was the end of the road for the Lady Tigers, as they were ousted by No. 2 seed California in the regional semi-final in Spokane, Wash.
LSU played much of the season with an eight-woman roster, which allowed for a number of impressive individual performances.
Perhaps the biggest surprise this season was the improved play of junior forward Theresa Plaisance, who had never started a game at LSU prior to the season.
Plaisance emerged as the Lady Tigers’ biggest threat in the post and was crowned the SEC’s scoring champion with 17 points per game. She also led LSU with 8.3 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game.
“I really worked my butt off this summer to do everything possible to make myself better for this team,” Plaisance said in January. “… I accepted the challenge that I had to do whatever it takes to establish the inside game that we lost last year.”
Freshman guard Danielle Ballard also turned heads and established her role as a rising star by shattering LSU’s single-season steals record with an SEC-best 2.9 steals in her first season.
Ballard is the first player in LSU basketball history — men or women — to tally 100 steals in one season. She also collected 12.1 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game.
“What [Ballard] means to our team is unmeasurable because she does so many great things for us,” Caldwell said in March. “She’s a player that not only can get those steals, but her rebounding as a point guard is pretty impressive.”
LSU says goodbye to two seniors in guards Adrienne Webb and Bianca Lutley. The duo played a vital role in the Lady Tigers’ late-season run, averaging a combined 24.8 points and 10 rebounds per game.
“It stings, but I have had one great career at LSU,” Webb said in a news release after LSU’s loss to California. “We have really fought through everything, through injuries and through numbers. We have really dug deep and believed in each other and pulled through. I really couldn’t ask for a better group of players and coaches to have for this last senior season.”
“I’m extremely proud of this team. We have battled and we have hit adversity and we have been challenged. These young ladies came together and decided to fight, fight for one another and they put LSU back on the map as a dominant program.”
