The LSU women’s basketball team is down to seven active players after a one win, two loss performance at the Gulf Coast Showcase in Estero, Florida over the weekend.
The Lady Tigers, (4-4, 0-0 Southeastern Conference) — without junior guard Raigyne Moncrief — dropped their first game of the tournament to the Purdue Boilermakers on Friday night before defeating Marist College without freshman forward Ayana Mitchell on Saturday. Junior Alexis Hyder scored 13 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in the Tigers’ 52-41 loss to the University of Maine on Sunday.
LSU coach Nikki Fargas said two of the team’s three injured players are nursing season-ending injuries, leaving the Tigers with seven active players heading into Tuesday’s game against Texas Southern University.
“Anne Pedersen went down during the game on Saturday against Marist, and we will not have her for tomorrow’s competition,” Fargas said. “We hope to get her back. We go into finals and exam week so she is going to be able to recover from that. Her injury is one that she will be able to come back from.
“At this point, we have two young ladies that have season-ending injuries in Raigyne Moncrief and Ayana Mitchell. Both of them will be undergoing surgery in the next week. We hope for both to have speed recoveries and we’ll be ready for them to come back and compete next season.”
Fargas acknowledged injuries are a part of the game of basketball, but the ones at the beginning of the season hurt more than usual because players don’t get a chance to gain valuable playing experience
before stepping into new roles.
Late in the 2013-2014 season, Jeanne Kenney suffered a season-ending concussion, but Rina Hill and Jasmine Rhodes performed well after seeing increased minutes because of their seasoned experience.
Sophomore guard Jenna Deemer stepped into her role as the team’s sharpshooter after it lost three starters this year. She scored 10 points, knocking down two threes in LSU’s last game against Maine.
Fargas said Deemer will also see an increased role as a ball handler to placate the loss of Moncrief.
“Jenna Deemer has shown that she can step up offensively and really be that punch that we need from the perimeter,” Fargas said. “She’s someone who we are going to rely on to assist Rina Hill in running the offense. We’ve been playing her periodically at the point position to give Rina a breather away from the basket.”
LSU will plays its fourth game in five days against Texas Southern University at 11 a.m. on Tuesday in the PMAC in the 5th-Annual Field Tripgame.
Fargas said her team needs to have the right mindset as it heads into the final stretch of its grueling non conference schedule.
“We’ve got to understand what we need to do, at home, in an environment where in less than 48 hours, we just played and traveled, now we’ve got to come back and we’ve got to be mentally tough and be disciplined in our play action that we need to run and how we are going to execute our game plan.”