With six freshmen and five new starters from last season’s Final Four team, LSU women’s basketball coach Van Chancellor knew his team would have growing pains to begin the season.But following consecutive 20-point wins to open Southeastern Conference play, including Sunday’s 55-34 win against Alabama, Chancellor likes where his team is headed.”I thought our defense tonight was outstanding,” Chancellor said. “When you give up 34 points in the SEC, that’s very good . . . When you win a game and you shoot 47 percent from the free-throw line, don’t make a 3-ball and shoot 39 percent from the floor, what does that tell you?”The Lady Tigers (8-5, 2-0) jumped out of the gates quickly and opened an 11-2 lead in the first four minutes of the game.LSU’s defense kept the Crimson Tide (12-5, 0-2) out of rhythm on offense to keep expanding its first half lead to 24-12 at halftime.The Lady Tigers held the Alabama offense to just 23 percent shooting in the opening half and 25 percent for the game.LSU also contested Alabama on the perimeter and limited the Crimson Tide to just 2-of-19 shooting from the 3-point line.Alabama women’s basketball coach Wendell Hudson credited the LSU defense for keeping the Crimson Tide’s offense out of rhythm but said his team didn’t play with the poise needed to win an SEC road game.”We depend on the 3-point shot a little more than some other teams,” he said. “LSU had a lot to do with why we didn’t make some shots. But there were times where we were open enough to make them and we just didn’t make them.”Junior guard Allison Hightower led the Lady Tigers in scoring with 17 points and also pulled down a game-high nine rebounds.Hightower was one of five Lady Tigers with five or more rebounds. LSU outrebounded the Crimson Tide, 48-37, for the game and outscored Alabama, 28-8, in the paint to prevent a Crimson Tide comeback.Hightower said LSU is very confident heading toward the most difficult part of their schedule.Four of LSU’s next five games are on the road, including a Jan. 18 game with No. 24 Vanderbilt, which beat No. 11, 74-58, on Sunday.”We’re very confident right now,” Hightower said. “We have a lot of momentum. And we’ve come out the last couple of games and we keep coming to practice with the mindset that we’ve got to keep getting better.”Sophomore guard Katherine Graham filled up the stat sheet for the Lady Tigers, scoring 11 points, grabbing six rebounds and getting three steals.Sunday’s win continued a positive trend for LSU, which finished December with a 4-1 record, highlighted by a 51-41 home win against Louisiana Tech on Dec. 15.Hightower has elevated her game to spark the Lady Tigers’ run and scored double-digits in four of the five games LSU played in the month.LSU continued its winning streak into 2009 with a New Year’s Day victory against Nebraska.But the Lady Tigers had their winning streak halted two days later in the team’s first road game of the season, losing 76-63 to No. 1 Connecticut.LSU opened conference play with a 62-42 win against Arkansas on Jan. 8.Freshman forward LaSondra Barrett led the way for LSU in the SEC opener and scored a career-high 27 points.With traditional powerhouses LSU and Tennessee each having lost the core of their Final Four teams, Chancellor said he is optimistic his team can make a run in what he considers a “wide-open” SEC.”This is a really, really young league,” he said. “From top to bottom, Georgia has some experience, Florida has some and then Auburn and v. That’s about it. So when all these young teams go on the road, it will be a real challenge.”– Contact Casey Gisclair at [email protected]