During Nikki Caldwell’s tenure, the LSU women’s basketball team has excelled at defending home court against Southeastern Conference opponents, notching a career 21-9 record at the PMAC.
This season, the Lady Tigers’ (14-9, 8-3 SEC) dominance at home has come in every way possible.
In Caldwell’s fourth season, LSU opened league play at home with a 75-51 loss to then-No. 1 South Carolina on Jan. 4. The 24-point loss marked the worst conference loss at home since 2012.
Since the South Carolina loss, the Lady Tigers have turned their season around by winning five-straight conference games at the PMAC in a multitude of ways.
“It was definitely a tough loss for us, especially the range of points that happened,” said sophomore guard Jasmine Rhodes. “It kind of hit our pride a little hard, so we wanted to keep it like, ‘This is our home, you can’t beat us here. This is our sanctuary. You can’t come into our house and take over.’”
After trailing for more than 36 minutes against South Carolina, the Lady Tigers led fore more than a combined 74 minutes against Vanderbilt and Ole Miss.
Although junior guard Danielle Ballard returned from a 14-game suspension against Vanderbilt, senior guard DaShawn Harden led the Lady Tigers with 18 points and shot 7-for-11 from the floor, and 2-for-5 from behind the 3-point line.
Against Ole Miss, freshman guard Jenna Deemer caught fire, shooting 7-for-10 from the field and tallying a career-high 22 points.
“I think my teammates gave me that spark,” Deemer said following the Ole Miss win. “They looked for me. It’s energy, I feel their confidence in me. That just gives me more confidence to shoot the ball. When Coach [Caldwell] says ‘Light ‘em up,’ I feel like I can’t miss, and I’m going to light ‘em up.”
Despite dominating Ole Miss and Vanderbilt, the Lady Tigers notched their only home win of the season against a ranked opponent against then-No.10 Kentucky in a close 84-79 victory on Jan. 18.
After almost single-handedly leading LSU to a 71-69 upset at then-No.15 Mississippi State on Jan. 15, Ballard returned to the PMAC with a shot to notch a second-straight win against a ranked opponent.
The Lady Tigers’ offense exploded for a season-high 84 points against Kentucky. Ballard tallied her second consecutive game with more than 20 points and combined with senior forward Sheila Boykin and sophomore guard Raigyne Moncrief to score 54 points.
Against Alabama on Sunday, the Tide cut LSU’s lead to four points with seven minutes remaining in the second half. But, Ballard and Moncrief took over by scoring eight of the Tigers’ last 12 points and led LSU to a 51-39 victory.
“It’s a big weight off our shoulders,” Rhodes said. “The person who has the ball might not have the shot. We dribble in and make the extra pass to Danielle or [Moncrief], and we know they’re just going to take over. They both are fearless, so they attack really hard.”
Despite winning the majority of their conference home games with lights-out offense, the Lady Tigers dominated Alabama with a stifling defense. The Lady Tigers forced 22 turnovers and allowed the Tide to shoot only 31.3 percent from the floor, including a dismal 5.9 percent from 3-point range.
“You want to make sure, especially in SEC play as competitive as it is, you want to make sure you’re taking care of business at home and have a great home record,” Caldwell said. “We’ve been able to really play off of the crowd. We’ve been able to generate energy from the support that we’re getting from our fans.”
You can reach Morgan Prewitt on Twitter @kmprewitt_TDR.