LSU coach Van Chancellor thought he had seen everything in his 31 years coaching collegiate and professional basketball.But coaching nine new players on a team that lost eight seniors last season is providing a new challenge for the Lady Tigers’ veteran coach.”I’ve just got to find a way to be really patient with them,” Chancellor said following LSU’s win Monday against Texas Southern. “There are things that we just really struggle carrying from the practice floor into the game.” The area where LSU has had the most problems is on the offensive side of the floor, where LSU is No. 11 in the Southeastern Conference in scoring offense, averaging 60 points per game.Junior guard Allison Hightower has stepped up to be the team’s primary scorer and is averaging career highs in points, rebounds and assists. But help behind Hightower has been sporadic.Four players averaged more than 6 points per game last season, and the Lady Tigers shot 45 percent as a team. But those numbers have dropped this year, and LSU is shooting just 37 percent as a team. Hightower and freshman LaSondra Barrett are the only LSU players averaging seven or more points per game. One player who may emerge as another scorer for LSU is freshman guard Destini Hughes.Hughes scored a career-high 14 points Monday night to help LSU score 40 second-half points — the most points the Lady Tigers have scored in a half this season.Before Monday’s 4 of 7 performance, Hughes was just 4 of 23 for the season.”My teammates just found me open,” Hughes said. “It really wasn’t anything I did. I just got open on the side and … I just knocked it down.” But one person who thinks the Lady Tigers will progress as the season moves forward is Texas Southern coach Yolanda Wells-Broughton.Wells-Broughton recruited most of LSU’s newcomers last season as an assistant coach for the Lady Tigers.The first-year head coach said she knows it will take time for the team to develop the chemistry of previous Lady Tigers’ teams, but if they do, they will be able to play with anyone in the country.”They’re going to get it together,” she said. “They’ll be ready before conference play.” CHANCELLOR SADDENED BY COMETS’ FOLDINGMonday’s victory was bittersweet for Chancellor, as he found out following the game that the WNBA’s Houston Comets were folding after 12 seasons.Chancellor coached the Comets for their first 10 seasons of existence and won the league’s first four WNBA Championships.Chancellor said when he heard the news, he was “deeply saddened.” “It’s like losing a child for me,” he said. “I have a lot of memories that are now no longer there.” The fate of the current Comets players will hinge on a dispersal draft being held by the league later this month.Former LSU guard Erica White is on the Comets’ roster and is expected to be picked up by another team during the draft.
 
 
 
—- Contact Casey Gisclair at [email protected]