OXFORD, Miss. — After playing four ranked teams in four consecutive games, the 25th-ranked Lady Tiger basketball team will face their first unranked team in nearly a month when they travel to Oxford, Miss., to take on the Ole Miss Lady Rebels on Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Tad Smith Coliseum.
The Lady Tigers (8-6, 1-2 SEC) have made it through the most difficult part of the schedule, taking on then No. 7 Georgia , then No. 15 Florida and No. 2 Tennessee in consecutive games to open the conference schedule. LSU now has three straight conference games against unranked teams. Ole Miss (9-7, 1-2 SEC) is coming off consecutive losses to Vanderbilt and Mississippi State after opening league play with a win over Arkansas.
LSU is led by sophomore Doneeka Hodges who has fired 20 or more points in two straight games, including a career-high 29 points against Florida. Junior Aiysha Smith leads the team in rebounding with 6.5 a game and sophomore Temeka Johnson leads the SEC in assists in conference play.
In their last outing, against second-ranked Tennessee, the Lady Tigers held the lead with under eight minutes remaining in the game and were as close as five points with three minutes left in the game, but could not hold off the deep bench of the Lady Vols in the loss. The 12-point loss was the closest margin of defeat for LSU in Knoxville in 14 years.
Ole Miss is led by freshman guard Ally Kelly with 11.6 points a game. Carletta Brown leads the Lady Rebels off the bench with 6.1 rebounds a game.
LSU returns home to take on Arkansas on Sunday at 2 p.m. in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The Pack the PMAC ticket drive officially kicked off on Tuesday. The game will be on Jan 27 against nationally ranked Vanderbilt at 4 p.m. Thousands of free tickets are available at Baton Rouge area McDonalds, Winn Dixie stores, Tiger Mania and Levis Mitsubishi. Large blocks of tickets are also available through the women’s basketball office by calling (225) 578-6643.