The LSU women’s basketball team’s home loss to Tennessee on Jan. 24 began a stretch in which the Lady Tigers dropped four of five games.The No. 23 Lady Tigers (18-7, 7-6) and the No. 5 Lady Volunteers (24-2, 12-1) meet again tonight at 6 p.m. on ESPN2 — this time in Knoxville, Tenn., with LSU riding a three-game winning streak.LSU’s average margin of victory in the three Southeastern Conference victories against Florida, Auburn and Vanderbilt is 26.7 points. Most recently, LSU allowed just 39 points to Vanderbilt on Thursday, the fewest the Commodores have scored in team history.LSU coach Van Chancellor said he was encouraged by the Lady Tigers’ defensive effort in his team’s first meeting with Tennessee, despite the outcome.”We played good defense — only gave up 55 points to the biggest women’s college basketball team that has ever played the game,” Chancellor said. “Our rebounding was good, and so was our offensive execution. We just couldn’t score.”LSU shot just 14-of-53 from the field, a meager 26.4 percent, while Tennessee converted 21-of-47 shots, nearly 45 percent.”If we miss that many shots Monday, that’s the way the game is going to go up there,” Chancellor said. “That was the only game in the SEC [when] we have not shot free throws well, and [from the field] we couldn’t throw one in the Mississippi River out there standing on the bridge.” Junior guard Katherine Graham has contributed strongly to LSU’s scoring this month. In a triple-overtime loss to Ole Miss, she garnered 20 points on her way to just the third triple-double in LSU women’s basketball history, and she added a team-high 15 points against Vanderbilt.”I’ve never seen anybody improve like [Graham]. I promise you that,” Chancellor said. “She’s been a post player all her life until she came to LSU.”Chancellor said Graham’s “unique personality” also extends off the court.”She’s one of the few players who can talk to the coach where the rest of them can’t,” Chancellor said. “She’ll come tell me, ‘Coach, calm down a little bit. We got this game.'”Graham said LSU has to continue playing as a unit to win the Tennessee game. The Lady Volunteers have won eight games in a row and are 12-0 at home this season.”We definitely take a team effort over individual statistics any day because that’s how you beat good teams like Vanderbilt and Tennessee,” Graham said. “One person is never going to beat the other team.”Senior guard Allison Hightower was one of four players who scored in double figures for LSU on Thursday. She said the Lady Tigers also need to bring a team effort on the defensive side of the ball.”It starts with defense. LSU is known for our defense,” Hightower said. “We want to make sure we bring that effort every single night — hustle plays, get loose balls and rebound.”LSU lost the rebounding     battle, 39-32, against Tennessee in January, but Chancellor said the Lady Tigers have a different attitude this time around.”We decided we’d demand more in practice, and we’d demand more in games,” Chancellor said. “You have to have discipline, you have to know where to get the ball and you have to be able to run things out of a timeout.”
 
 
 
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