Women’s Hoops Comes Up Short Against Lady Vols

The LSU women’s basketball team returned back to the PMAC after being away for the past two games and came up just short against Tennessee, losing 64-63 Sunday afternoon.

Senior point guard Khalya Pointer tied her season high with 25 points and had a team-high five assists. Tiara Young came off the bench and provided a spark offensively, with 11 points and a perfect 3-3 from the free throw line; and Karli Seay had active hands defensively, and picked up six steals. As a team, LSU had 14 steals and forced 19 turnovers as a whole.

“Defensively, when we really started getting deflections and we were hustling to get the ball, the game played in our favor and that’s how we need to play,” Nikki Fargas said postgame. “We need to be scrappy and we need to get after people.”

But what ultimately was LSU’s undoing was getting out-rebounded by Tennessee. The Lady Vols had a 39-25 advantage on the glass, leading to 36 points in the paint and 19 second chance points.

“We had looks, we knew what we wanted to run offensively, we knew where their weak spots were, we knew how we could play downhill, but we were also counting on our defense being solid to keep them off the glass,” Fargas said. “That was part of our game plan, that was a game goal of our and we did not do a good job in that area.”

Currently sitting at 4-5 and 2-2 in conference play, the schedule is only going to get more difficult for LSU. Over the next six games, LSU will play No. 8 Texas A&M in a home-and-home, and host No. 5 South Carolina; LSU will also travel to Athens to take on a tough Georgia team that could very easily be ranked in this upcoming week’s AP Poll.