BATON ROUGE — After a come-from-behind victory over No. 26 Virginia Tech to win the www.womenscollegehoops.com Crawfish Classic, the No. 15 LSU Lady Tiger basketball team travels to take on No. 20 Texas in Austin on Thursday at 7 p.m.
The Lady Tigers (3-0) are off to their best start since 1998 but face a challenging test this week in Texas and No. 10 Purdue. Undefeated Texas (3-0) upset then No. 23 Wisconsin and then squeaked by USC to win the Paradise Jam Classic tournament last weekend and break into the top 25 poll.
“Texas will be a huge challenge for us,” said LSU head coach Sue Gunter. “They moved into the top 25 this week after wins over Wisconsin and USC. Both of those games were extremely close and they had to really play well to win. This is a game that win or lose, we will gain experience and grow as a team.”
The game will be the first away from the Pete Maravich Assembly Center for LSU this season. The Lady Tigers have only two road games before opening Southeastern Conference play. Last season, LSU was 6-4 on the road. The Lady Tigers have played the Longhorns in Austin just once before, with then No. 5 Texas coming away with the 76-61 win in 1988.
This will be the second home game Texas, which calls the Erwin Center home. Last season, the Longhorns were 12-5 at home and had the 12th best average attendance in the nation at 5,796 fans a game. In their first home game this year, Texas defeated BYU, 90-74 in their season opener.
“This game will be a character builder for our team,” said Gunter. “The Erwin Center is a tough arena to play in because they draw great crowds. With as young a team as we have, this will undoubtedly be a growing experience for us to use later in the season when we begin conference play.”
The Lady Tigers have been a force on offense to start the season. Led by Crawfish Classic MVP Doneeka Hodges, who is averaging 18 points a game, LSU is averaging over 87 points a game as a team. In all three games, the Lady Tigers have had at least three players in double-figures scoring and the starting five are all averaging in double-figures for the season.
Junior Kisha James became only the second player in LSU history to have back-to-back double-figure assist outputs after dishing out 11 assists against Tennessee-Martin, ninth best in school history, followed by 10 assists against Virginia Tech.
Like LSU, Texas is also a young team, starting two seniors, two sophomores and a freshman. The Longhorns are led by sophomore Stacy Stephens with 15.3 points and eight rebounds a game, both team highs.
Freshman Heather Shreiber is second on the team with 13.7 points per game. Texas has four players averaging at least nine points a game.
LSU returns home to take on No. 10 Purdue, last season’s NCAA runners-up, in the PMAC on Sunday at 2 p.m. The Lady Tigers split a pair of games with the Boilermakers last season. LSU defeated Purdue in Indianapolis, Ind., before falling at West Lafayette, Ind., in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.