BATON ROUGE — After advancing to the SEC Tournament Championship game and the second round of the NCAA Tournament, LSU head coach Sue Gunter was named the LSWA Coach of the Year and Aiysha Smith was named the Newcomer of the Year, as announced on Saturday.
Sophomores Temeka Johnson and Doneeka Hodges were named to the All-Louisiana second team, as voted on by members of the Louisiana Sports Writer’s Association.
The fourth-winningest head coach in NCAA history, Gunter led the Lady Tigers to their seventh straight postseason appearance and their fourth straight NCAA tournament bid as LSU advanced to the SEC championship game for the first time since 1991.
At the helm of a team with just seven healthy players and no seniors, she led the Lady Tigers to wins over three nationally ranked teams including triumphs over then No. 3 Tennessee and then No. 9 South Carolina.
In addition to earning Newcomer of the Year honors, Smith, a junior transfer from Tyler Junior College, was also a First-Team All-Louisiana selection. The first-team All-SEC selection recorded double figures scoring in 29-of-30 games this season, including a streak of 27 consecutive games to start the season, the fourth longest streak in LSU history.
She led the team in scoring, rebounding, steals, blocked shots and field-goal percentage and ranked in the top 10 in the SEC in scoring and rebounding.
She ranked fourth in the SEC with eight double-doubles and recorded a career-high 23 points against Ole Miss and at Vanderbilt. Her career-high 17 rebounds against Arkansas were the most rebounds by a Lady Tiger since Nov. 24, 1998.
An Honorable Mention All-America selection, Johnson earned Second-Team All-Louisiana honors. The sophomore from New Orleans led the SEC in assists and finished the season ranked second in assists in single season in school history, despite missing the first six games of the year.
After stepping into the staring role in just her third collegiate game, she also went on to break the school record for assists by a sophomore. The two-time LSWA Player of the Week and SEC All-Tournament team selection broke the school single-game assist record with 15 against Florida. Stepping up when it mattered, she recorded a career-high 11 rebounds against Colorado in the NCAA Tournament and recorded a career-high 22 points in the SEC Tournament Championship game against Vanderbilt.
Hodges, a sophomore from New Orleans, also earned second-team All-Louisiana honors for the Lady Tigers. The All-SEC Second-Team selection was second on the team with 15.3 points per game, ranking in the top 20 in the league in points per game. In addition, she finished the season ranked in the top 10 in points and assists by a sophomore.
After just two seasons, she ranks fifth in career three-pointers made and sixth in career three-pointers attempted in LSU history. This past season, she ranked seventh in single-season three-pointers made and attempted in school history.
Against Ole Miss, she recorded a career-high 29 points. On nine different occasions, she scored over 20 points last season and had two double-figure rebounding games. In addition, she was named the Most Valuable Player of the womenscollegehoops.com Crawfish Classic.