BATON ROUGE — LSU’s seventh-ranked women’s basketball team will look to keep its Southeastern Conference winning alive on Sunday when the Lady Tigers travel to Auburn for a 2 p.m. contest at Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum.
The game will be broadcast by the LSU Sports Network and can be heard in the Baton Rouge area on 107.3 FM. The game can also be found on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net. College Sports-Southeast is televising Sunday’s game and it will be replayed on Tuesday at 8 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.
LSU (17-3, 6-1 in the SEC) enters the contest riding three winning streaks: a seven-game overall streak, a five-game SEC streak and four-game conference road streak. The four-game SEC road winning streak is the longest in school history, while the five-game streak in league play is second to only the seven straight wins by the 1982-83 team. LSU goes into Sunday’s round of SEC play a half-game back of first place Georgia in the league standings.
Auburn (17-4, 4-3) has won two straight, including a 71-62 victory over South Carolina on Thursday. Auburn, whic is 11-1 at home this year, holds a commanding 24-5 series advantage over LSU which includes an 11-1 mark in games played at Auburn. The only time LSU has won at Auburn came in 1997 by a 79-65 count.
Last year, LSU rallied from a 15-point second half deficit to beat Auburn, 63-61, on a last-second shot by Latasha Dorsey in overtime in Baton Rouge.
LSU has won two of the last three meetings between the teams.
LSU enters the Auburn game without the services of senior forward Candice Porter and perhaps that of freshman forward Ke-Ke Tardy. Porter tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee against Centenary on Tuesday and a day later Tardy severely sprained her right ankle. At 7.7 points a contest, Tardy is LSU’s top scoring threat off the bench.
“To lose two players in one week, that’s tough to deal with,” LSU coach Sue Gunter said. “Those things happen. We just have to have somebody else step up to get the job done. You can’t do anything about it. That’s what we have those other players on the bench for. It’s now an opportunity for them.”
LSU and Auburn enter the game ranked second and third, respectively, in the SEC in scoring defense and offensively, both teams have four starters scoring in double-figures.
“Auburn is a very good team,” Gunter said. “They return all five of their starters from last year and they have a couple of newcomers that have really stepped up for them. They are just really solid. They have a good backcourt and their frontcourt is very good.
“This is just another one of those tough SEC games. We have to go in there and do the best we can. It will be another 40-minute game.”
LSU’s strength is with that of its starting five as the unit will be making its 16th straight start together. In addition, LSU starters Katrina Hibbert, Marie Ferdinand, DeTrina White and April Brown have started 50 straight games together, a streak that dates back to last year’s season-opener.
Offensively, the Lady Tigers are led by 5-9 junior guard Ferdinand and 5-11 senior forward Hibbert. Ferdinand leads LSU and ranks second in the SEC with 17.9 points a contest and her 5.85 assists are tops in the league.
Hibbert, who was named SEC Player of the Week on Monday, is second on the squad and in the SEC in both scoring (14.1 points) and assists (5.75). Hibbert also ranks third in the league in 3-point field goal percentage (43.2 percent) and steals (2.85).
Rounding out the Lady Tiger lineup will be 5-11 junior point guard Angelia Crockett (4.5 points, 4.2 assists), 5-11 junior forward Brown (11.0 points, 4.7 rebounds) and 5-11 sophomore center White (12.0 points. 9.6 rebounds).
White leads the SEC in rebound and double-doubles (8) and she ranks second in field goal percentage (60.4 percent).
“LSU has done an outstanding job on the road,” Auburn coach Joe Ciampi said. “They are on a seven-game winning streak and they are feeling good about themselves. They play solid basketball. Sue Gunter‘s teams always play solid and never beat themselves.
“You have to be sound fundamentally in everything you do defensively and offensively to challenge them.”
Auburn is led by 5-10 junior guard Tasha Hamilton (13.3 points, 4.5 rebounds) and 6-2 senior center Conswella Sparrow (10.7 points, 4.8 rebounds).