EUGENE, Ore. — The top-seeded LSU women’s basketball team went through its 100th practice of the season on Sunday afternoon at Oregon’s McArthur Court, as the Lady Tigers get set for an NCAA second-round showdown with No. 8 seed Wisconsin-Green Bay. View the Photo Gallery from day 5 in Eugene.
Tip-off is set for 10:33 p.m. CST (8:33 p.m. local time) on ESPN2.
LSU (28-3) defeated 16th-seeded Southwest Texas, 86-50, late Satuday night to advance to face the Phoenix. UW-Green Bay, making its sixth tournament appearance, beat No. 9 seed Washington, 78-65, setting up the first meeting between with the Lady Tigers in women’s basketball history.
In its first-round victory, LSU set school NCAA tournament records for margin of victory (36) and field goal percentage (58.8). The previous records were 30 points in a 92-62 win over Missouri in the Lady Tigers’ first NCAA appearance in 1984, and 58.2 percent (32 of 55) on March 16, 2001, against Arizona. It was the sixth-straight first-round win for the Lady Tigers dating back to 1997.
UW-Green Bay won its first NCAA Tournament game on Saturday, shooting 49 percent from the field (25 of 51) and making 22-of-24 free throws. The Phoenix led the entire game, though Washington got within one point, 50-49, with 11:06 remaining.
One of four starting seniors, guard Kristy Loiselle, leads the team in scoring at 14.4 points per game. She had 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting and was one of five Phoenix in double figures scoring. All five starters average better than 8.6 ppg., with three averaging double figures.
The Phoenix lead the nation in three-point shooting efficiency, making 43.5 percent (251 of 577) from beyond the arc — almost 8.1 per game.
On the other side of the ball, LSU led the Southeastern Conference in three-point shooting defense by nearly five percentage points at 24.4 percent (100 of 409).
The Lady Tigers allowed eight three-pointers only twice this season, including a triple-overtime win over UC-Santa Barbara when the Gaucho made four of their eight in the extra periods. The most allowed by LSU was nine during the second game of the season at Southeastern Louisiana, a 93-52 win.
In the past 100 minutes of basketball, the Lady Tigers have held opponents to 2-of-33 shooting from three-point range.
Quotes from Sunday’s Press Conference
LSU head coach Sue Gunter
Opening comments
“Green Bay is an impressive team, when you look at their record and what they’ve accomplished. You look at their balance and what they’ve accomplished. They’re well coached. It should be a very interesting basketball game.
“They do so many things well, not only in their offensive production — I think they’re like fourth in the country offensively — but they’re a great defense basketball team. I was really impressed with what we were seeing in the defense.
“They’re very disciplined on the offensive end of the floor. The transition game is good. They love to push the ball and kick it in transition to shoot the three. I think everybody gets enamored by their threes and by their offense, but this is a very, very good defensive basketball team.”
On who UW-Green Bay is similar to in the SEC…
“Vanderbilt. Their perimeter game is probably better than Vanderbilt’s, and probably Vanderbilt’s inside game is a little better. Just from the way they like to penetrate and kick, they do a great job of getting to the free throw line. That’s something we have to be aware of. We’ve got to play very hard, and we have to defend well without fouling. They just remind me of the way Vanderbilt likes to play, the same way of trying to control tempo and put pressure down the court. I really like the way they play good defense, not so much just trying to steal everything. They’ll come with some good traps, but basically they’ll put pressure on you three-quarter court. Very doggy, they’ll get after you.”
LSU point guard Temeka Johnson
On what the team’s motivation will be …
“If we need to be motivate at this time of the year, we shouldn’t be here.”
On controlling the tempo of the game…
“We need to control the game from the tip. We can’t sit back and wait to see how the game’s going to go, we have to take control from the beginning. We can’t play around with a team like Green Bay. They had a strong finish against Washington last night, finishing 5-of-6 from the three-point line.”
LSU forward Ke-Ke Tardy
On the way to win the game…
“At this stage of the game, everybody’s going to pretty much do what they’ve been doing, maybe add a few wrinkles. But, nobody’s going to change much. I think we’ll come out and play LSU basketball.
UW-Green Bay Head coach Kevin Borseth
On LSU…
“They are extremely athletic. You’ve got to be quick, fast and explosive. They can run, they’ve got hands, they’re just a talented team…something we haven’t seen yet. They can make you do things you wouldn’t normally want to do. I don’t know if I’ve seen a team that talented since I began coaching. We’ve got a lot of respect for them. They have our attention.”
“We have two options: play to win, or play not to lose. We’ve chosen to play to win.”
On his team…
“We take care of the ball. We are disciplined on both ends. We don’t gamble. We make solid passes, and solid decisions. We’re not a flashy team. The most emotion I’ve seen from this team was at last night’s win.”