Home never felt so good for the Lady Tigers.
After travelling to Tucson, Ariz., for the Nov. 22 season-opening overtime win against the Arizona Lady Wildcats, the Tigers have been collecting their frequent flyer miles.
The women took a trip back to Baton Rouge Saturday Nov. 23, followed by a bus trip to Hammond to face Southeastern Louisiana the next day. LSU would not be able to relax because the next day the Lady Tigers welcomed in Florida Atlantic for a home contest.
Count ’em: three games, four days, a return flight home, a bus trip to and from and a home game.
Then the Tigers found themselves back on the court in, of all places, Miami for the Florida International University Thanksgiving Classic the day after the Thursday holiday. A win against Washington State preceded a win against FIU the next day before the Tigers returned to Louisiana’s capital city.
The No. 2 Lady Tigers (5-0) will welcome Alabama State Saturday night at 7 p.m. in the PMAC.
Point guard Temeka Johnson is just happy to be back home.
“Anytime we’re home, it’s good,” she said. “When you’re away you have to get used to a new environment. Staying at home is good for us because we’ve been on the road. This home game should be a good one for us. We should come out with the intensity we need to have.”
Freshman guard/forward Seimone Augustus said she is excited LSU fans will get their second chance to see the Lady Tigers play a regular season home game.
“It’s going to be exciting to come back home to our fan base,” Augustus said. “We’ve been away and fighting against people, so we’re going to be ready to come back home and play on our home court.”
For head coach Sue Gunter, returning home means getting her team back into the routine.
“The most important thing for us was to get back in the gym and practice,” Gunter said. “From the time we left to go to Arizona, to the time we got back from Miami, we had only had two practice days.”
Augustus said the team wants to focus on improving defensively.
“[We want to] see where we’re at defensively,” Augustus said. “Coach has been talking about defending the dribble. We’ve been letting a lot of
penetration happen. So we’re trying to defend the dribble and keep people from penetrating.”
Gunter said the Lady Tigers can take advantage of several things they are good at to continue improving on the defensive end.
“That’s the mindset of the team right now,” Gunter said. “We’re a very athletic team and we can be very aggressive because we do have depth. We want to be an outstanding defensive basketball team.”