BATON ROUGE — LSU scored 60 points in the paint and put four players in double figures as the Lady Tigers opened exhibition play with a 113-46 win over the National Women’s Basketball League Elite team Wednesday at the Maravich Assembly Center.
All 11 LSU players who dressed played at least 12 minutes and no one played more than 22 minutes as the Lady Tigers quickly jumped out to a 29-9 lead in the first nine minutes, en route to a 59-22 halftime advantage.
Seimone Augustus, the sophomore All-American from Baton Rouge, led LSU with 21 points while Temeka Johnson and Marian Whitfield each scored 18 points with Florence Williams putting in 11 more. Doneeka Hodges scored seven points, but had 10 assists in a game where LSU shot 64.3 percent (21-of-29, 72 percent in the second half) for the game and had 26 assists to just 12 turnovers.
Jamie Redd, who had the unique triple double of 18 points, 11 rebounds and 10 turnovers, led the All-Stars in scoring while Monika Roberts added 12. Former LSU Lady Tiger Aiysha Smith played for the Elite team, playing 32 minutes with three points and six rebounds.
The Elite team shot just 30.5 percent for the game and just 40 percent from the free throw line as the LSU defense forced 39 turnovers.
“I was pleased overall,” said LSU Coach Sue Gunter. “Obviously we have a long way to go, but I think probably the best thing about this was giving the four freshmen the opportunity to play and to play for an extended period of time. It is just one of those things, I think the inside game has still got to come around for us.
“I felt like overall it was not much more than I expected but I thought they would be a little more competitive than they were,” said Gunter. “That is a team that has been thrown together and it is real hard for them to challenge particularly from a conditioning standpoint. We did not do a good job on the boards (out rebounded 49-41) and that is a concern and that seems to always be a concern of ours whether we are big or whether we are little.”
The Lady Tigers play their final exhibition game on Monday at 7 p.m. at the Maravich Assembly Center against the Latvian Select team.