BATON ROUGE — After disappointing losses to Texas and Purdue, the LSU Lady Tiger basketball team looks to return to its winning ways as they host in-state rival Louisiana-Lafayette on Tuesday in the first game of a basketball doubleheader at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center starting at 4:30 p.m.
In what is one of the most challenging non-conference schedules in school history, the Lady Tigers (3-2) stumbled last week against No. 20 Texas on the road and at home against No. 10 Purdue. The Ragin’ Cajuns (1-4) have also played a much tougher schedule than usual and have come away with a single victory over Southwest Texas.
“This has become a very big game for us,” said LSU head coach Sue Gunter. “We need to rebound from a loss to Purdue where we just didn’t play very well. ULL is a vastly improved team and I expect them to play very hard and be really competitive.
“Coach Gay Nix has her team ready to play. They are not a big team, but they play hard and execute well. Coach Nix has scheduled tougher teams in non-conference play this season to help her team improve to get ready for their conference schedule and I think that they will give us a really good game.”
Five games into the 2001-02 season, the year can be divided into the first three games and the last two games for the LSU.
In their first three games of the season, all victories, the Lady Tigers outscored opponents by an average of over 30 points, averaged 87.3 points a game, shot 59.3-percent from the field, forced 72 turnovers and outrebounded their opponents.
In the last two games, both losses, LSU has averaged only 58.5 points a game on 35.7-percent accuracy from the field and was outrebounded 41-33.
Sophomore Doneeka Hodges leads the Lady Tigers in scoring with 16.8 points a game, followed by freshman Scholanda Dorrell with 16 points a game. Both have posted 20-plus points in a pair of games this season. Hodges scored a career-high 21 against Virginia Tech and 20 against Purdue. Dorrell had a team season-high 22 points against Grambling and 21 against Texas.
Junior Ke-Ke Tardy leads LSU on the boards, with 6.4 rebounds a game. She posted a career-high 15 rebounds against Grambling. Junior Aiysha Smith follows with 5.8 rebounds a game.
Junior Kisha James leads the team with 39 assists for the season, including back-to-back double-figure assist games against Tennessee-Martin and Virginia Tech. Dorrell leads the team with 17 steals.
In 19 previous meetings dating back to the 1975-1976 season, LSU has never lost to ULL and has completely dominated the series. Only two games have been decided by less than 12 points.
In their last meeting, the Lady Tigers defeated the Ragin’ Cajuns, 85-48 last season in the PMAC. Tardy recorded her first collegiate double-double for LSU as she finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds, one of four Lady Tigers in double-figures scoring.
After taking on ULL, the Lady Tigers will have a 12-day break from competition for dead week and finals. The schedule does not let up as LSU returns to action against nationally-ranked Michigan at home on Dec. 16.