BATON ROUGE — Junior Aiysha Smith earned honorable mention All-SEC honors from the Associated Press as the Lady Tiger basketball prepares to travel to Boulder, Colo., for the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday to face No. 11-seed Santa Clara at 10:36 p.m. CT on ESPN2.
LSU (17-11) finished the season ranked No. 22 in the AP poll and No. 24 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll, the fourth straight year the Lady Tigers have finished the season ranked in the Top 25. LSU has also now finished ranked in the Top 25 in five of the last six seasons.
The Lady Tigers are making their seventh consecutive postseason appearance and their fourth straight NCAA Tournament appearance. Last season, LSU advanced to the second round of the tournament before losing to eventual national runner-up Purdue, 73-70, in West Lafayette, Ind.
This will be the first meeting between the Lady Tigers and Santa Clara. The Broncos were the runner up to Pepperdine in the West Coast Conference regular season and conference tournament. LSU is 3-1 all-time against teams from the West Coast Conference.
Should LSU defeat Santa Clara, the Lady Tigers would face the winner of the game between No. 3 seed-Colorado and No. 14-seed Southern on Sunday, March 17 at 10 p.m. CT on ESPN2.
First-Team All-SEC
LaToya Thomas, Mississippi State
Shaun Gortman, South Carolina
Kara Lawson, Tennessee
Chantelle Anderson, Vanderbilt
Zuzi Klimesova, Vanderbilt
Second-Team All-SEC
Tan White, Mississippi State
Brandi McCain, Florida
Vanessa Hayden, Florida
Kara Braxton, Tennessee
Michelle Snow, Tennessee
Jocelyn Penn, South Carolina
Ashley McElhiney, Vanderbilt
Honorable mention All-SEC
Dana Cherry, Arkansas
Aiysha Smith, LSU
Shameka Christon, Arkansas
Player of the Year
LaToya Thomas, Mississippi State
Freshman of the Year
Tan White, Mississippi State
Coach of the Year
Susan Walvius, South Carolina