BATON ROUGE — Sue Gunter, the LSU Lady Tigers head coach, and the trio of Seimone Augustus, Aiysha Smith and Temeka Johnson each earned awards by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association, it was announced on Friday.
Gunter, who just finished her 21st season as head coach of the Lady Tigers, was tabbed the Louisiana Coach of the Year. It is her second straight year she received the honor and the third time overall.
Gunter owns a 415-213 record at LSU and guided the Lady Tigers to a 30-4 season in 2002-03, including winning the 2003 Southeastern Conference Tournament title. The 30 wins were the most for a LSU team under the direction of Gunter. The Lady Tigers also finished the season with a No. 3 national ranking by the Associated Press and reached the Elite Eight for the third time in school history.
LSU’s trio of Augustus, Smith and Johnson made up three of the five first-team All-Louisiana spots, while Augustus was the unanimous choice as the state’s Freshman of the Year. Doneeka Hodges was selected to the third-team.
Augustus, a 6-1 guard/forward from Baton Rouge, led LSU in scoring (14.8 ppg) and free throw percentage (a school record 88.8) and was second in rebounding with 5.5 per game and field goal percentage (54.9). The USBWA National Freshman of the Year’s 504 points scored were the fifth most by a freshman in LSU history.
Smith, a participant in the 2003 Women’s Basketball Coaches Association All-Star Challenge this weekend in Atlanta, was second on the team in both points scored with 13.2 per game, and rebounds with 5.5 per outing. The senior from Detroit, Mich., finished her career at LSU with 925 points in two seasons and started all 64 games in her career.
Johnson, a junior who was one of three finalists for the Nancy Lieberman National Point Guard of the Year Award, led LSU with 199 assists, the second most single-season total in LSU history, and she scored 20.0 points per game, while hitting 50.6 percent of her field goals. The New Orleans native helped lead LSU to its first Southeastern Conference tournament title since 1991 by being named MVP after scoring a career-high 24 points in the championship game against Tennessee.
Hodges, a junior guard, made the third-team. She, along with the other three honorees, player in all 34 games for the Lady Tigers and averaged 9.5 points per game and hit 48 three-pointers.
Louisiana Tech’s Cheryl Ford and Trina Frierson filled in the other two first-team spots, while Ford was named the LSWA Player of the Year and New Orleans’ Monique Taylor was named the Newcomer of the Year.