The LSU women’s basketball team didn’t get off to the start it envisioned when it hit the court against visiting Arkansas-Little Rock on Friday, and the team now finds itself in unfamiliar territory to start coach Nikki Caldwell’s fourth season at the helm.
The Lady Tigers (0-1) committed 20 turnovers and shot a paltry 32.6 percent from the field in a season-opening 70-54 loss to the Trojans (1-0) on Friday in the PMAC.
It was LSU’s first season-opening loss in Caldwell’s four years with the program and the first for the Lady Tigers since a 71-62 defeat against Northwestern in 2010.
Throughout the game, LSU struggled to create open looks and knockdown shots against Arkansas-Little Rock’s suffocating defense, and the Lady Tigers finished with only three assists on a dismal 14-of-43 shooting display.
But after the game, all Caldwell could talk about was her team’s lackluster defensive performance to end the contest.
“LSU has always been known as that team that really gets after people [defensively],” Caldwell said. “That’s the disheartening thing is I felt we could’ve done a much better job in our intensity and our effort on the defensive end.”
The Lady Tigers opened the contest by making two of their first three field goal attempts to grab an early 4-0 lead at the 17:19 mark.
But a 3-pointer three minutes later by Trojans’ junior guard Alexius Dawn gave the visiting team a lead it wouldn’t relinquish until there was 58 seconds remaining in the first half.
Both teams had trouble finding the basket in the early going as the LSU and Arkansas-Little Rock shot a combined 15-for-46 in the first 20 minutes of play.
LSU held the Trojans to 30.8 percent shooting from the field and forced eight of Arkansas-Little Rock’s 13 turnovers before the break. 
“I thought we brought a great deal of pressure in the first half,” Caldwell said. “When you hold a team to 24 points, your defense is doing some things right.”
But the Lady Tigers couldn’t capitalize on their early defensive prowess. They turned the ball over 11 times in the first half, and LSU sophomore guard Rina Hill said it was because the team wasn’t focused on the minute details of the game.
“We struggled using screens well, we didn’t get open at the right time and the passing was off,” Hill said. “All of those little things matter.”
LSU freshman guard Jenna Deemer, who went 7-of-10 from downtown in the preseason, drilled a 3-pointer near the end of the first half to give the Lady Tigers a 26-24 lead heading into the break.
But Arkansas-Little Rock ran away with the game after LSU junior guard Anne Pedersen tied it 34-34 with a pair of free throws in the second half. The Trojans turned the tight contest into a rout thanks to a 27-10 run that lasted until 5:04 remained in the contest.  
While Arkansas-Little Rock was hitting on all cylinders in the second half, the Lady Tigers couldn’t get anything going offensively. LSU went 12:14 without making a field goal and at one point trailed by as much as 20.
As the missed shots mounted, Caldwell said she sensed a change in her team’s defensive focus. 
“I thought the second half when Little Rock went on their run, we didn’t answer it,” Caldwell said. “When we weren’t making shots to answer their run, we allowed that to dictate how we played on the [defensive] end.”
But LSU won’t have much time to fixate on its struggles Friday. The Lady Tigers will play their second game in two days when they host Sam Houston State at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at the PMAC.
LSU sophomore guard Raigyne Moncrief, who led the Lady Tigers with 15 points and nine rebounds Friday, said she’s already moved past her squad’s season-opening loss and is focused on the next game.
“You have to move on,” Moncrief said. “We have to work on our plays and watch film. We have to worry about the next game. This already happened, so you have to get over it.”