By David Steinle
Special to LSUsports.net
For more than 29 minutes on Super Sunday, it looked like the Vanderbilt hex would remain hanging over the LSU Lady Tigers. The Commodores’ imposing inside combination of 6-foot-6 Chantelle Anderson and 6-foot-4 Jenni Bennigfield had the LSU front line spinning their heads, as was the case in the previous six meetings against the Nashville Skyline.
The Commodores’ inside combination scored 37 points, but in the final 10:34 of the game, Vanderbilt suddenly picked the exact wrong time to go cold, missing 11 of 12 shots in a nine-minute stretch and allowing the Lady Tigers to outscore them 24-9 in the last part of the second half to improve to 17-1.
Again, the victory was a prime example of how talented depth can help a team overcome any obstacles. LSU played much of the game with starting center KeKe Tardy, DeTrina White’s able replacement, in foul trouble. But, thanks in large part to 20 solid minutes from freshman Wendlyn Jones and the ability of Seimone Augustus to shift from shooting guard to the inside, the Tigers blunted Vandy’s hot shooting and even won the rebounding battle, 31-30.
Anderson and Bennigfield aren’t the tallest players Vanderbilt has had (remember 6-foot-10 Heidi Gillingham?), but Benngifield and Anderson are one of the best inside combination the Commodores have had on the offensive end, and to allow only nine points over 10:34 says a lot about LSU’s commitment to defense.
The Commodore curse is over, at least for now. The two teams will meet on the stage (literally) known as Memorial Gym on March 2, a place that is tough enough for visiting teams to play.
But first things first. Coming to the PMAC this Sunday is the one team that has owned the Lady Tigers’ den.
The Georgia Lady Bulldogs have traditionally been one of the SEC’s strongest teams, and there’s certainly no shame in losing to a team that is almost always a contender for the league championship and a threat to make noise during March Madness. In 20 of the 24 meetings against LSU, Georgia has come in as a ranked team, and seven times the Lady Bulldogs have been in the top five when facing the Lady Tigers.
LSU hasn’t been totally devoid of success against Georgia, including three scintillating victories in the 1990s over Lady Bulldog squads that were in the top five. The first two came in the SEC Tournament, as LSU beat third-ranked Georgia in 1991 en route to the tournament championship, and the second was in 1996, when an unranked Lady Tiger squad shocked second-ranked Georgia, only to see the final at-large bid of the NCAA tournament that year go to Tulane.
In 1999, LSU broke an eight-year drought at Stegeman Coliseum with an 80-74 upset of second-ranked Georgia en route to the Elite Eight, but still, Georgia’s hex over the PMAC remains in place.
For only the second time in series history, LSU comes in as the higher ranked team, and although Georgia leads the SEC with Tennessee, the Lady Bulldogs are vulnerable. This is the first Georgia team to lose to hated archrival Georgia Tech, and losses to Arizona and Arizona State exposed Georgia as a team with depth and focus issues to deal with.
That was then, and this is now, and Georgia is looking more like the Georgia that women’s college basketball watchers are used to seeing.
But this year, the odds are in the Lady Tigers’ favor. Depth will play a key role in helping LSU cope with the constant pressure and attacking style of basketball that Landers is known for. Although past LSU teams have wilted under the Lady Bulldog heat, this group of Lady Tigers is too determined not to have that happen to them.
Another is the fan support. Lady Tiger fans need to be given a huge pat on the back for showing up in force on Super Sunday, so much so that 4,702 people put off the chips and dip for two hours to watch the nation’s sixth-ranked team. In fact, it was the largest Lady Tiger crowd outside of the Pack the PMAC games and contests against Tennessee. If similar numbers will show up this Sunday, they can become a tremendous sixth player and rattle the visitors from Athens.
LSU seems to have learned its lesson very well from the loss at Arkansas last Sunday, clamping down on defense and fitting its top-10 billing in wins over Florida and Vanderbilt. A win over Georgia on Sunday will go a very long way to helping coach Sue Gunter realize her dreams of an SEC championship.