BATON ROUGE – The LSU women’s basketball team looks to return to the win column as the Lady Tigers square off against Vanderbilt on Thursday at the Maravich Center.
Tipoff is on-tap for 8:05 p.m. CT, and the game will be televised nationally by the SEC Network. The telecast also will be available on http://www.watchespn.com/ and the Watch ESPN app. Cara Capuano and Gail Goestenkors will serve as the broadcast team.
The LSU Sports Radio will carry the game on its flagship station Talk 107.3 FM in Baton Rouge. The broadcast featuring Patrick Wright, the voice of the Lady Tigers, also will be available for Geaux Zone subscribers at www.LSUsports.net/live.
Tickets for Thursday’s game are on-sale at http://www.lsutix.net/ and can be purchased at the Maravich Center Box Office starting as low as $2 for general admission seating. Admission for LSU students along with LSU faculty/staff is free with a valid LSU ID card. The Maravich Center Box Office opens at 6:30 p.m. on gameday. The first 1,000 fans receive a set of women’s basketball trading cards.
LSU (7-7, 1-1 SEC) and Vanderbilt (8-6, 0-2 SEC) are both coming off home defeats to Top 10 opponents. The Lady Tigers dropped a 75-51 decision to No. 1 South Carolina, while the Commodores fell 57-49 versus No. 7 Tennessee.
Vanderbilt carries a 24-17 series lead over the Lady Tigers. The home team has won the last 10 regular season meetings dating back to LSU’s win at Memorial Gym which came during the 2004-05 season. The Commodores held serve on their home floor with a 79-70 win over LSU last season.
Vanderbilt is led by Heather Bowe’s 10.7 points per game who has connected on 56.3 percent of her field goal attempts. The Commodores also receive double figure scoring from Khaléann Caron-Goudreau (10.5 PPG) and Rebekah Dahlman (10.1 PPG). Dahlman has knocked down a team-leading 19 triples. Morgan Batey is the only Vanderbilt player to start in all 14 games. She has secured 8.6 points and a team-leading 6.1 rebounds per game.
“We are excited to take the court tomorrow,” head coach Nikki Caldwell said. “We are in a position to solidify another win, and we have a quality opponent in Vanderbilt. They have a balanced attack inside and outside. Just listening to some of the commentary and when (Head Coach) Melanie (Balcomb) was mic’d up (during Monday’s Tennessee game), there are a lot of similarities that I feel she is going through with a young team. The SEC is a tough conference to play in. Night in and night out, you’ve got to be ready to play your ‘A’ game. We’ve got to bring that tomorrow against Vanderbilt. ”
LSU’s post play has been led by Stephanie Amichia and Sheila Boykin during SEC play. Amichia has registered 6.5 points and 7.0 rebounds per game over her first two SEC outings. She collected eight points along with a career-high tying seven rebounds against No. 1 South Carolina in her second start of the season. Boykin has upped her averages to 9.7 points and 7.6 rebounds per game over her last five outings. She is coming off an 11-rebound performance during the South Carolina game.
Akilah Bethel has tallied 6.5 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game. She has recorded at least five points and five rebounds during 10 of LSU’s 14 games. Ann Jones has notched 4.2 points and 4.1 rebounds per game and has come off the bench in seven of her last eight appearances.
Anne Pedersen has pumped in 11.0 points per game during the first two games of the SEC season. She racked up a career-high 14 points at Florida followed by an 8-point effort against No. 1 South Carolina.
The Lady Tigers continue to be led by DaShawn Harden in the backcourt. She has posted 16.0 points per game in SEC play highlighted by a career-high 23 points against Florida. Raigyne Moncrief has added 10.3 points, 7.4 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game. She will look to return to double figures for the first time since a 14-point effort at Miami.
Jenna Deemer has come off the bench in 13 of her 14 games and has averaged 10.6 points per game over her last five outings. During the five-game stretch, 11 of her 20 field goals have come from beyond the three-point arc. Rina Hill and Jasmine Rhodes have chipped in 4.2 points and 2.1 points per game, respectively.
“Offensively, we are much better when we are sharing the basketball,” Caldwell said. “We have got to make the extra pass, and we have got to see the open player. I think we’ve got players that do a nice job of commanding that second line of defenders to come up, but we are not making the extra pass and making somebody else shine. When we do that and when we will decide to do that, then we will be a better offensive team.”
For all of the latest news and information on Lady Tiger basketball, visit www.LSUsports.net/womensbasketball. Fans can also follow the program on its social media outlets at www.Facebook.com/LSUwbkb, @lsuwbkb and @NikkiCaldwell on Twitter, @LSUwbkb and @LSUNikkiCaldwell on Instagram.
LSU Women’s Basketball Media Session
January 7, 2015
HEAD COACH NIKKI CALDWELL
Opening statement …
“We are excited to take the court tomorrow. We are in a position to solidify another win, and we have a quality opponent in Vanderbilt. They have a balanced attack inside and outside. Just listening to some of the commentary and when (Head Coach) Melanie (Balcomb) was mic’d up (during Monday’s Tennessee game), there are a lot of similarities that I feel she is going through with a young team. The SEC is a tough conference to play in. Night in and night out, you’ve got to be ready to play your ‘A’ game. We’ve got to bring that tomorrow against Vanderbilt. ”
On the senior leadership provided by Sheila Boykin and DaShawn Harden …
“I’ve seen them in different scenarios and situations that they have been put in. You can recognize it in practices when they are calling their own team huddles. When they are over there on the sideline when one group is playing, the other group is over there communicating with each other. When we are in competition and we were in a situation when we were down against Florida, I saw the leadership kind of shine through even in the first half when adversity did hit this team. That’s when you need leadership the most. They are learning. Obviously, Sheila (Boykin) is a four year senior here. DaShawn (Harden) is a player who transferred in, so she’s really been in our program one full season, a year and a half, if you will. It’s leadership by example. I think Rina Hill and Anne Pedersen do a phenomenal job of bringing that type of leadership through their work ethic. Sheila is a more vocal leader for us. We are getting more and more people to be better followers so I think that has been a plus for us.”
On if the team is looking to use a fullcourt press more on the defensive end …
“I think we are going to look to explore that a little bit more. We’ve got an opportunity to really try to take away the possession in the amount of time that we give in the possessions tomorrow. Vanderbilt is a very deliberate and precise offensive team. They do a great job of sharing the basketball and running the play action that’s called. We don’t want to allow them to get into a comfortable rhythm. We would like to be able to disrupt not only the ball handlers but also the timing and the tempo that they’re playing in. Through your full court pressure, you’ll be able to do so.”
On Vanderbilt …
“You see a lot of similar play action. They’ve got a lot of new faces. They’ve got the Goudreau twins. Their point guard situation, it’s a new face there. Heather Bowe is playing tremendous basketball being back for them right now. When you add (Rebekah) Dahlman back to the mix, you’ve got a player who can just really make baskets. The depth of their team is a plus for them. They are able to go into their bench. They’ve got the toughness of a (Marqu’es) Webb inside. There are a lot of different pieces to the puzzle that we’ve got to stay aware of at all times. I know that (Coach) Balcomb misses (Jasmine) Lister, who I knew when I was out in California, who’s a great leader. You can tell that she commanded that type of leadership. When you have a player like (Christina) Foggie, who is no longer there. As an opponent, we are glad to see those two gone. They are doing some really nice things with the young group that she has.”
On where the team needs to improve offensively and defensively …
“To me, the defense and offense are connected together because if we are turning the ball over and we have those live ball turnovers, then that leads to transition baskets. It’s going to be very hard to set your defense. I’d rather us set our five or zero (defense) than give up baskets in transition. That influences that aspect of the game as well. Defensively, we’ve got to also be willing, to me, to battle a little bit and be more aware. I think our awareness gets us into trouble. I say this all the time, you’ve got to be aware of the next pass. Where is the next scoring opportunity for the team that you are guarding, and it’s usually one pass away. I tell our team all the time – a skip pass and they are jacking the shot, you did your job as a defensive unit now you’ve got to go rebound it. I do think there is an area that we can be better at, that’s definitely it. Then offensively, we are much better when we are sharing the basketball. We have got to make the extra pass, and we have got to see the open player. I think we’ve got players that do a nice job of commanding that second line of defenders to come up, but we are not making the extra pass and making somebody else shine. When we do that and when we will decide to do that, then we will be a better offensive team.”
On the team being able to play a full 40-minute game …
“This team has unlimited potential, and we have yet to play our best basketball. We have been known for that team to get started and be able to reel off seven consecutive wins. We’ve done that in the SEC, but I don’t want us to wait until we get down and our backs are against the wall. This team has shown that they have a lot of fight in them. We’ve shown that we can score a lot of points in a short period of time. On the flip side of that, we’ve also shown that we can give up a lot of points in a short period of time. We’ve got to neutralize a couple of segments there. Usually the game, when we talk about it being a 40-minute game, we break it down into 10 rounds. Obviously, round one is at the tip. Are we coming out swinging, or are we getting knocked out? We’ve got to play the game like you would as a boxer. You cannot come into the ring with your hands down. Just like on the defensive end, we always say ‘hand down man down’. So, we’ve got to make sure that we are taking each segment and trying to win those segments. I told them, I say ‘If you just win the segment by one basket, you’ve got that team beat by 20 points when it’s all said and done’. So, really trying to fight and to win segments or win rounds so that they will add up to that 40-minute game that we have been talking about.”