BATON ROUGE — Six LSU players were with their respective teams on Wednesday, the first day of training camp for the Women’s National Basketball Association.
Of the six, only Katrina Hibbert and Elaine Powell are returning from last season. Hibbert averaged 2.7 points and 1.5 rebounds in 20 games this past year, her first with the Seattle Storm. Powell, who also saw action in 20 games, averaged 3.6 points and 2.5 rebounds per contest for the Orlando Miracle.
Marie Ferdinand and April Brown will be going through their first training camp as each was selected in the 2000 WNBA Draft, held on April 20.
Ferdinand, a Kodak All-American, became the highest drafted Lady Tiger when she was picked eighth overall by the Utah Starzz. Ferdinand led LSU with 21.1 points, 3.5 assists and 2.5 steals last season.
Brown was chosen in the fourth round with the 51st overall pick by the Indiana Fever. She scored 11.3 points per game last year, which ranked second on the LSU squad. She is also one of just 12 players to score over 1,000 points and haul in 500 rebounds in a career.
Joining Brown at the Fever camp will be former Lady Tiger Cornelia Gayden, who donned an LSU uniform from 1992-95. Gayden has played professionally in the now defunct American Basketball Association and overseas while also serving a short stint with the Orlando Miracle last season. She remains the third-leading scorer in LSU history with 2,451 career points.
Pietra Gay, who played at LSU with Powell from 1995-97, is making an attempt at rejoining the Houston Comets for the first time since 1997. Gay was a member of the first WNBA Championship team in Houston that season. Since then she has played professionally in Puerto Rico.
Each team roster at camp consists of near 20 players. Teams final rosters will be decided by the end of next week.