LSU defeated Xavier University of New Orleans in its first exhibition game in the PMAC Thursday with only seven of the Lady Tigers’ ten players taking the court.
Each of the seven players who played Thursday night contributed, with junior forward Theresa Plaisance and junior guard Jeanne Kenney, who both earned double-doubles, leading the pack.
“There’s a lot of highlights for tonight’s game…” said LSU coach Nikki Caldwell. “We had five of our players in double digits, so you like seeing the balanced attack.”
The LSU defense swarmed Xavier and tallied 17 steals while the two-three set up forced Xavier to take outside shots that led to a 24 percent shooting average – going 14-58 on the night.
Missing in action were the three freshmen – guard Kuaneshia Baker, guard Danielle Ballard and center Derreyal Youngblood, who are serving a one-game suspension for violating a team rule.
Caldwell told her players before the game that if they needed a break, she’d take as many timeouts as she could.
“Considering having only seven able to play tonight, I thought the seven worked extremely hard and fought through the fatigue,” Caldwell said. “It was definitely a testimony to their mental toughness.”
With the guards back on Monday, Caldwell said Kenney will be able to move off the ball and be open for easy looks at the basket. Kenney earned 11 assists playing at the point guard position against Xavier.
Heading into the exhibition game on Tuesday against North Alabama, the Lady Tigers will focus on the rotation of their 10 players, as well as a more solid defense to prepare for the regular season.
“I thought defensively we broke down in contesting the open looks that Xavier got,” Caldwell said.
“They put up a lot of threes, and in our conference and non-conference schedule, we have a lot of teams that put up a lot of threes.”
The Lady Tigers take on North Alabama at 7 p.m. Tuesday night in the PMAC for their last exhibition game before the regular season starts.
