BATON ROUGE — LSU’s Lady Tigers basketball team, the No. 4 seed in the West Region of the 2004 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship, went through its final practice on Saturday afternoon in preparation for Sunday’s first-round game against No. 13 seed Austin Peay in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
No. 5 seed Miami (Fla.) and No. 12 seed Maryland and Austin Peay also went through practices in the Maravich Center for the first-round games play in Baton Rouge. The first game, between Miami (Fla.) and Maryland, will tip at 6 p.m. CST. LSU and Austin Peay will tip about 30 minutes following the conclusion of the first game.
Tickets for the tournament, which include Tuesday’s second-round game, will go on sale at the Maravich Center beginning at 4:30 p.m. CST and can also be purchased on-line at www.LSUsports.net.
LSU, in its sixth straight NCAA Tournament appearance, is playing its first home game in the NCAA Tournament since hosting the first-and second-rounds in 2000. The Lady Tigers own an 8-1 record at home in the tournament games, including six straight wins.
The Lady Tigers are 23-7 overall and finished second in the Southeastern Conference with a 10-4 record.
Seimone Augustus, a sophomore guard for LSU, leads the Lady Tigers into the tournament. The Baton Rouge native is averaging 18.6 points and 6.0 rebounds per game, while seniors Doneeka Hodges and Temeka Johnson are not far behind, averaging 14.7 points and 12.7 points respectively. Johnson is also among the nation’s best dishing out 8.0 assists per game.
Austin Peay, the automatic bid from the Ohio Valley Conference with a 23-7 overall record, is riding a five-game win streak entering the tournament after capturing the OVC Tournament title.
Gerlonda Hardin, a senior post player, leads Austin Peay. She is averaging 18.6 points and 8.8 rebounds per game.
This will be the first meeting between the two schools.
The winners of the two first-round games will meet in the second-round on Tuesday in the Maravich Center. The game time will be determined on Sunday evening.