The LSU women’s basketball team is undefeated after the first week of play following Sunday’s 62-57 win over the University of Northern Colorado.
In the season’s opener against Sam Houston State on Tuesday, junior forward Ayana Mitchell put on a show, recording the season’s first double-double with 20 points and 15 rebounds. On Sunday against Norther Colorado, she picked up where she left off with another dominant outing, putting up 14 points and a career-high 18 rebounds.
LSU coach Nikki Fargas has stated many times that she expects Mitchell to be a dominant force this season. After the win in the season debut, Mitchell is expected to be one of the best players, not only in the conference, but also in the country. So far, she has not disappointed with a pair of impressive double-doubles to start the season.
The Lady Tigers controlled the glass all night, out-rebounding the bears 44-37. Their dominance on the boards was key in the win.
The Lady Tigers had the scoring spread out against Northern Colorado. Junior guard Jaelyn Richard-Harris made her season debut after missing the first game with an injury. In her first game back, she scored 13 points and added four assists.
Sophomore guard Khayla Pointer also scored in the double digits with 15 points and five assists. The Lady Tigers also got some good contributions from sophomore guard Jailin Cherry and junior center Faustine Aifuwa, who both added nine points each.
“We had almost five players in double figures so that to me looks like a balanced attack,” Fargas said.
LSU kept the tempo fast and the defense aggressive. They forced 16 turnovers and had 15 points off of those turnovers. This is definitely the kind of play Fargas likes to see.
“I want the pace to be up-tempo and us looking to get some easy baskets out of transition,” Fargas said after the season opener.
They were outscored by four points in the third quarter but exploded for 24 points in the fourth quarter to drive home the victory.
Fargas has spoken about the focus they have been putting on the fourth quarters of games and their conditioning. They have been doing things a bit differently this year.
“We have this thing that we call Fourth Quarter Fridays. Every Friday we trained with the Louisiana Police Department,” Fargas said. “We hope that that would translate into the fourth quarters of basketball games. Because last year we did not lose a lot of fourth quarters.” 
The Lady Tigers hope to continue their hot start as they host Tulane on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in the Pete Maravich Center.