BATON ROUGE, La. — The LSU women’s basketball team goes for its 50th straight non-conference home victory at 7 p.m. Tuesday when the Lady Tigers play host to Mercer in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
LSU has not lost a non-conference game in the PMAC since 1995, when the Lady Tigers were defeated by Lamar.
LSU (4-3) enters Tuesday’s game ranked No. 16 in the ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll and No. 20 in the Associated Press poll. The Lady Tigers have won two straight games, including a 68-61 victory over Tulane on Sunday.
Mercer, a member of the Trans America Athletic Conference, is 1-7 after a 69-43 loss to Florida State on Sunday.
A replay of the LSU-Tulane game will be shown on Cox Cable Channel 18 at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday. The LSU-Mercer game will also be shown on a tape-delayed basis on Cable Channel 11 at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Wednesday.
The LSU-Mercer game can be heard live in Baton Rouge on WTGE 107.3 FM and on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net.
LSU’s win over Tulane Sunday marked the return of all-SEC center DeTrina White, who played for the first time this season after recovering from a back injury. White contributed three points and a team-high nine rebounds in 28 minutes of action.
All-America guard Marie Ferdinand led four Lady Tigers in double figures with 20 points, although she sat out 10 minutes in the first half due to foul trouble.
“I believe 10 minutes without Marie in the first half really says a lot about our bench,” LSU head coach Sue Gunter said. “And thank goodness we have some depth now that DeTrina is back. It’s been a while since we’ve had people that we could maneuver and substitute.”
Though White has returned to the line-up, LSU will play its second straight game without starting forward April Brown, who underwent arthroscopic knee surgery on November 30. LSU has yet to play a game with its full 10-member squad in uniform.
“It has been very difficult, without question,” Gunter said. “I feel like if we had our full contingent of players, we could have won two of the three games we lost. That’s the downside. That’s got to help us when we get into conference play. It’s unfortunate we’ve had so many kids out with injuries, but we hope by Christmas, we’ll be back at full strength.”
The Lady Tigers are scheduled to start White, a 5-11 junior, at center and 5-11 freshman Roneeka Hodges (11.7 points per game, 6.3 rebounds per game ) at forward. Ferdinand (22.1 ppg, 6.0 rpg), a 5-9 senior, will start at guard along with 5-7 sophomore Kisha James (9.3 ppg, 2.6 assists per game) and 5-11 senior Angelia Crockett (1.7 ppg, 3.3 apg).
James, who suffered a hip pointer in the Tulane game, may see limited action against Mercer.
Mercer is expected to start 5-10 junior Tracy Henry (10.1 ppg, 7.5 rpg), 5-9 sophomore April Dyer (9.4 ppg, 6.1 rpg) and 5-11 junior Britt Stewart (6.6 ppg, 2.1 rpg) at the forwards, with 5-3 senior Tiffany Howard (0.5 ppg, 2.0 apg) and 5-8 sophomore Jo Shaw (4.1 ppg, 1.7 apg) at the guards.
LSU, which has already played three Top 25 teams, faces sixth-ranked Purdue at 3 p.m. Saturday in Indianapolis.