BATON ROUGE — LSU plays its second consecutive road game this Thursday when it travels to Nashville for a Southeastern Conference match up with No. 19 Vanderbilt.
The game can be heard on the radio in Baton Rouge on WGTE 107.3-FM. It can also be heard on the internet at www.LSUsports.net, LSU?s official website.
The Commodores are the first ranked opponent for LSU since the Lady Tigers faced No. 23 Mississippi State on Jan. 28 in Baton Rouge, five games ago.
“This is the part of the schedule where we really have to step up,” said LSU coach Sue Gunter. “We have Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Florida, all in a row. This is a critical stretch in terms of us getting a bye in the SEC Tournament and hopefully hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.”
The game will feature a pair of All-America candidates in LSU’s Marie Ferdinand and Vanderbilt’s Chantelle Anderson. The duo are ranked second and third in the SEC in scoring with 20.9 ppg and 20.6 ppg, respectively. Anderson is the conference’s best shooter at 73.6 percent. The two played together this past summer on the United States Select Team that won the Jones Cup Gold Medal.
“Anderson is a tough, tough player to defend,” Gunter said. “Once she gets the ball in the post it is very tough to stop her. We need to use our quickness to keep the ball from getting to her where she can score easily.”
The Lady Tigers will be looking to avenge last year’s SEC Tournament loss to the Commodores. In that game, LSU managed only 11 first-half points and never recovered as Vandy won 59-46. LSU has won the last three regular-season meetings, including one in Nashville.
Expected to start for LSU is 6-1 sophomore Ke-Ke Tardy (9.4 ppg, 5.2 rpg), 5-11 senior April Brown (11.2 ppg, 4.8 rpg) at the forwards; 5-11 junior DeTrina White (8.9 ppg, 7.1 rpg) at center; with 5-11 senior Angelia Crockett (3.0 ppg, 3.6 apg) and Ferdinand, a 5-9 senior, at the guards.
Vanderbilt will counter with a big line up that includes four players over six feet tall. Anderson, a 6-6 sophomore will start at center while 6-3 freshman Jenni Benningfield (11.2 ppg, 7.9 rpg) and Zuzana Klimesova will occupy the forward positions (16.6 ppg, 7.6 rpg). Ashley McElhiney a 5-6 sophomore (8.9 ppg, 5.8 apg), and 6-1 junior Jillian Danker (12.8 ppg, 2.6 apg) will start at guard.
“Vanderbilt has a very big lineup across the board, which will make things tough for us,” said Gunter. “We will have to block out extremely well to negate their height on the boards. We can’t afford to give up 17 offensive rebounds like we did on Sunday to Arkansas.”