The LSU women’s basketball team lost more than just a basketball game Thursday night.
The Lady Tigers succumbed to injuries and costly turnovers in a tough 65-56 loss at the hands of No. 9 Tennessee (14-4, 5-1 Southeastern Conference) in Knoxville, Tenn., losing two key players in the process.
LSU (13-5, 4-2 SEC) played nearly all of the contest without starting sophomore point guard Jeanne Kenney, who suffered a concussion in the first minutes of the game.
In the waning seconds of a back-and-forth first half, LSU lost another point guard for the remainder of the game, when senior point guard Destini Hughes jumped to catch a lob pass and came down awkwardly on her right leg. Hughes left the court in a wheelchair.
“With those two gone, that definitely was a blow to our guard play,” said LSU coach Nikki Caldwell.
Two free throws from senior forward Courtney Jones cut the Lady Vols’ lead to three points with 3:03 left in the contest, but that was as close as LSU would get the rest of the game.
The Lady Vols followed Jones’ buckets with consecutive fast-break layups to push Tennessee’s lead to seven and put the game out of reach.
Tennessee scored 14 points off turnovers to LSU’s eight, which was something Caldwell attributed to mental lapses in transition defense.
“Our transition defense let us down,” Caldwell said. “We blew our coverage about three or four times during the course of the game. That’s anywhere from six to eight points right there.”
Despite playing much of the game down two starters, Caldwell thought her team gave a courageous performance in a hostile environment.
“They came in here with a lot of guts,” Caldwell said. “I feel if this team continues to play this way and continues to improve, we will be ready to go against everybody.”
Jones, LSU’s leading scorer of the night, accounted for 16 points on a six-for-10 outing and collected eight rebounds.
Junior point guard Adrienne Webb saw an increase in playing time with the injuries to Kenney and Hughes, adding 12 points for the Lady Tigers.
Caldwell said the hard-fought loss showed her when the Lady Tigers “put it together for 40 [minutes],” they can compete with anybody.
“I feel confident that this group will rally because they showed how they can stick together through adversity,” Caldwell said.
After two tough road losses, the Lady Tigers return to the PMAC on Sunday to host Arkansas (13-5, 2-4 SEC) at 2 p.m.
The Lady ‘Backs followed a season-opening loss with 11 straight victories but have since lost four of their last six games.
Three of Arkansas’ five losses came at the hands of top-25 ranked teams, including a 69-38 decision against then-No. 7 Tennessee in Fayetteville, Ark., Jan. 8.
 
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Contact Scott Branson at [email protected]