BATON ROUGE — LSU’s 15th-ranked Lady Tigers return home after a three-game road swing to face struggling South Carolina in Southeastern Conference action in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Sunday at 2 p.m. CST.
LSU (16-3, 4-1 SEC) is coming off a loss at Georgia a week ago that snapped a 15-game win streak, while South Carolina (9-9, 0-5 SEC) won its last outing, a non-conference victory over the College of Charleston, but has dropped eight of nine entering the game.
The Lady Tigers are a game behind Tennessee in the SEC standings and the Gamecocks are is 12th-place and are the lone winless team in the conference.
Seimone Augustus leads LSU into the game. The 6-1 sophomore guard is averaging 17.7 points and 6.3 rebounds per game and has scored over 20 points in each of the last four games for the Lady Tigers. Doneeka Hodges, a senior guard from New Orleans is averaging 15.4 points and 4.0 rebounds per outing and has scored in double digits in 12 straight games.
Senior guard Cristina Ciocan leads South Carolina into the game. She is averaging 13.2 points and 7.4 assists per game, while the four other starters are all posting double figure scoring averages.
This will be the 16th meeting between the two schools. LSU leads the series 12-3, including a 6-1 series lead in Baton Rouge. The Lady Tigers have won six straight games in the series, including a 69-66 win on Feb. 6 last season in Columbia.
Following the game, LSU will hit the road again, this time for a mini two-game road swing to Alabama and Auburn. The Lady Tigers will visit Alabama on Thursday at 7 p.m. CST and Auburn on Sunday at 2 p.m. CST.
PROBABLE STARTERS
USC (9-9, 0-5 SEC)
G 15 Cristina Ciocan 6-0 Sr. 13.2 ppg 7.4 apg 5.8 rpg
G 10 Kelly Morrone 5-7 Sr. 12.5 ppg 3.2 rpg 80.6 FT%
G 30 Lauren Simms 5-8 Fr. 10.2 ppg 2.4 rpg 42.2 FG%
F 14 Iva Sliskovic 6-3 Fr. 11.9 ppg 7.4 rpg 59.1 FG%
F 20 Olga Gritsaeva 6-2 Fr. 10.2 ppg 6.3 rpg 51.1 FG%
LSU (16-3, 4-1 SEC)
G 2 Temeka Johnson 5-3 Sr. 12.1 ppg 7.7 apg 5.4 rpg
G 45 Doneeka Hodges 5-9 Sr. 15.4 ppg 4.0 rpg 3.4 apg
G 33 Seimone Augustus 6-1 So. 17.7 ppg 6.3 rpg 89.3 FT%
F 42 Hanna Biernacka 6-1 Fr. 4.8 ppg 4.0 rpg 80.0 FT%
F 32 Wendlyn Jones 6-1 So. 6.5 ppg 4.3 rpg 54.5 FG%