BATON ROUGE — The 10th-ranked LSU women’s basketball team returns to action on Sunday at 2 p.m. when it faces Southeastern Conference foe Mississippi State in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
LSU (13-5, 4-2) enters the game riding a two-game win streak while the Mississippi State (10-8, 1-6), ranked 23rd in the nation, has lost its last four, including a loss on Thursday at Auburn.
“Mississippi State has had a stretch of bad luck in the past month,” said LSU coach Sue Gunter. “They have had an extremely tough schedule and lost some close games in that span. They are still a very dangerous team that can play with anyone in the country.”
The game will be televised on College Sports Southeast on tape delay and will be broadcast on Wed., Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. It can be heard in Baton Rouge on WGTE 107.3-FM or on the internet at www.LSUsports.net.
The two teams have met once already this year with LSU taking a 70-63 victory in Starkville, Miss. Marie Ferdinand led the way for LSU with 19 points while Ke-Ke Tardy had her breakout game of the season with 17 points and seven rebounds.
LaToya Thomas paced the Lady Bulldogs in the loss with 28 points and 13 rebounds.
“Thomas really hurt us last time we played. She was everywhere, scoring and rebounding and there wasn’t really anything we could do to stop her,” Gunter said. “If we can slow her down, it will really increase our chances of shutting down their entire offense.”
Overall, LSU has owned Mississippi State as they have a 29-4 all-time record against the Lady Bulldogs, including wins in the last eight meetings. That mark includes a perfect 14-0 record in Baton Rouge.
The Lady Tigers are expected to start Tardy (8.8 ppg, 4.9 rpg), a 6-1 sophomore and 5-11 senior April Brown (11.1 ppg, 4.8 rpg) at the forwards with 5-9 freshman Doneeka Hodges (7.3 ppg, 2.4 rpg), 5-11 senior Angelia Crockett (2.8 ppg, 3.6 apg) and Ferdinand (20.6 ppg, 3.3 apg) at the guards.
LSU will be without center DeTrina White for the third consecutive game due to back injuries.
Mississippi State is expected to counter with 6-2 sophomore LaToya Thomas (23.2 ppg, 8.7 rpg) 6-0 junior Jennifer Fambrough (14.9 ppg, 6.3 rpg) and 5-9 sophomore Keisha Stringfellow (4.6 ppg, 6.3 rpg) in the frontcourt. They will be joined by 5-6 senior Cynthia Hall (7.8 ppg, 4.2 apg) and 5-7 senior Meadow Overstreet (6.2 ppg, 2.8 apg) at the guard positions.