BATON ROUGE — The LSU women’s basketball team seeks its seventh straight victory at 2 p.m. Saturday, as the 13th-ranked Lady Tigers play host to North Texas in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
LSU (8-3) has won six consecutive games, including a 94-32 victory over Delaware State Thursday night. The Lady Tigers will also attempt Saturday to win their 53rd straight non-conference home contest.
North Texas (9-2) ended a two-game losing streak Thursday with a 77-59 win over New Mexico State in the Lady Eagles’ Sun Belt Conference opener.
The LSU-North Texas game can be heard in Baton Rouge on WTGE 107.3-FM and on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net. The television replay of the game can be seen in Baton Rouge Sunday on Cable Channel 11 at 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
North Texas represents LSU’s final non-conference game before the Lady Tigers open SEC play Thursday at No. 2 Tennessee.
“We’re making a big step up in competition on Saturday afternoon when we face North Texas,” LSU head coach Sue Gunter said. “They are an excellent team, and they have played a very difficult schedule against teams like TCU, Oklahoma and SMU. We need to play with a high intensity level not only to beat them but also to prepare for our game in Knoxville next week.”
LSU is expected to start 5-9 senior Marie Ferdinand (20.8 ppg, 5.5 rpg) and 5-11 senior Angelia Crockett (2.2 ppg, 3.5 apg) at the guards, 5-11 senior April Brown (10.0 ppg, 4.9 rpg) and 5-11 freshman Roneeka Hodges (11.4 ppg, 5.5 rpg) at the forwards, and 5-11 junior DeTrina White (6.4 ppg, 7.2 rpg) at center.
North Texas will counter with 5-10 junior Jalie Mitchell (13.5 ppg, 2.4 rpg) and 6-0 sophomore Ashley Roberson (7.5 ppg, 5.8 rpg) at the forwards, 5-5 junior Rosalyn Reades (4.1 ppg, 4.7 apg) and 5-10 freshman Heather Trout (7.9 ppg, 3.2 rpg) at the guards, and 6-2 junior Karen Lee (5.1 ppg, 2.8 rpg) at center.
Kristin Tramonte, a 6-0 junior forward (11.0 ppg, 6-1 rpg), is UNT’s second-leading scorer despite having started just two games this season.
Saturday’s game marks the first meeting between the schools.
“We can’t afford to start slow against North Texas the way we did against Delaware State,” Gunter said. “We have to come out with a lot of intensity. Our players know that in less than one week, we’ll be facing Tennessee. Our focus has to be strong for North Texas, and it’s something we have to maintain as we start conference play.”