BATON ROUGE — LSU’s 15th-ranked Lady Tigers basketball team begins a three-game home stand on Thursday when they host Vanderbilt at 7 p.m. CST in a Southeastern Conference game in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
LSU (20-4, 8-2 SEC) has won four the last five outings, including big wins over Arkansas and Florida last week. The Lady Tigers defeated Arkansas 92-65 at home and Florida 91-72 in Gainesville.
Vanderbilt (16-7, 4-6 SEC) has dropped four straight games, including a hard fought battle with Tennessee on Sunday. The Commodores lost 94-88 to the top team in the SEC.
Seimone Augustus leads the Lady Tigers into the game. The sophomore from Baton Rouge is averaging 18.3 points per game and leads the SEC by scoring 20.3 in conference games only. Doneeka Hodges and Temeka Johnson give Augustus support. Hodges is scoring 15.5 points per game, while Johnson is scoring 12.1 points and dishing out 8.1 assists per outing.
Jenni Benningfield, a senior forward, leads Vanderbilt. She is averaging 13.5 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. Junior guard Abi Ramsey is scoring 12.9 points per contest to compliment Benningfield.
This will be the 27th meeting between the schools. Vanderbilt holds a slim 14-12 series lead, but LSU has won two of the past three meetings, including a 70-59 victory in the Maravich Center last season and a 78-69 win in the semifinals of the 2003 SEC Tournament in Little Rock, Ark.
LSU, which sits in second place in the SEC standings, will conclude its 2003-04 regular season home schedule with games against Mississippi State on Sunday and Ole Miss next Thursday.
PROBABLE STARTERS
VU (16-7, 4-5 SEC)
G 10 Dee Davis 5-7 Fr. 5.4 ppg 1.9 rpg 4.3 apg
G 20 Abi Ramsey 5-10 Jr. 12.9 ppg 3.1 rpg 79.2 FT%
C 50 Carla Thomas 6-3 Fr. 8.9 ppg 3.9 rpg 57.6 FG%
F 24 Hillary Hager 5-11 Sr. 12.0 ppg 5.3 rpg 2.2 apg
F 42 Jenni Benningfield 6-3 Sr. 13.5 ppg 5.9 rpg 0.6 bpg
LSU (20-4, 8-2 SEC)
G 2 Temeka Johnson 5-3 Sr. 12.1 ppg 8.1 apg 5.3 rpg
G 45 Doneeka Hodges 5-9 Sr. 15.5 ppg 3.8 rpg 2.7 apg
G 33 Seimone Augustus 6-1 So. 18.3 ppg 6.1 rpg 91.0 FT%
F 42 Hanna Biernacka 6-1 Fr. 5.0 ppg 3.9 rpg 83.3 FT%
F 32 Wendlyn Jones 6-1 So. 7.2 ppg 5.3 rpg 55.2 FG%