LSU rides defense to 4-game streak
Kenney cleared to play after injury
From its record-tying five straight runs to the NCAA Women’s Final Four through the lean times last season, there has been one constant for the LSU Lady Tigers:
D-E-F-E-N-S-E.
In years past, it was a sticky half-court man-to-man. Now, under first-year coach Nikki Caldwell, the defensive template is a 2-3 matchup zone.
“The thing about the matchup is it maintains the same principles of a man” defense, Caldwell said Saturday after her team wrapped up practice for Sunday’s home game with Auburn.
“You’ve still got to have ball pressure. You’ve still got certain coverages on the help line,” Caldwell said. “We treat ball screens as switches, and we go underneath and switch off to buddy.”
Sometimes the Lady Tigers execute it well. Sometimes there’s still a learning curve to overcome.
“Trust me, half the time we don’t know what we’re doing,” sophomore guard Jeanne Kenney said. “We’re not running it right.
“But the effort that we give to make that extra play or to help that player out cancels out the inability to run it right.
“Overall, if there’s effort, no matter what defense you’re running, you’re going to be successful.”
Lately, you have to give the Lady Tigers an “A” for effort.
During their current four-game winning streak — which followed a five-game Southeastern Conference losing streak, which came on the heels of a 4-0 SEC start — LSU (18-8, 8-5 SEC) has stuck opposing offenses in the deep freeze.
LSU held SEC-leading Kentucky to 51 points in a 10-point upset win Super Bowl Sunday.
The Lady Tigers then beat Mississippi State 53-49, won 51-46 at Alabama and Thursday overcame the loss of Kenney to a hyperextended knee midway through the second half to win 50-42 at Arkansas.
That’s an average of 47 points per game on a frosty 31.9 percent shooting percentage for the Southeastern Conference’s best field-goal defense (33.4 percent entering Sunday’s contest).
“This group is so long,” Caldwell said. “We’ve got size. We felt our matchup would cause problems. And we don’t have a lot of guards, so we don’t have the quickness on the perimeter you would like to have.”
It looked like LSU might have even fewer guards when Kenney went down with 13:40 left to play at Arkansas and had to be helped to the locker room.
But the knee injury proved not to be serious.
After practicing Saturday, Kenney got the green light to play and start against Auburn.
“Yes, it’s impressive,” the former St. Michael’s standout said with a grin.
“I’m glad I’m double-jointed in my knees. My doctor told me that.”
Kenney (5.2 points, 2.3 rebounds, 2.8 assists per game) will again run the point with the help of backup Bianca Lutley (5.3 ppg, 2.4 rpg) and forward LaSondra Barrett (12.5 ppg, 7.0 rpg).
It’s been pretty much that same committee since senior Destini Hughes was lost with a season-ending knee injury Jan. 19 at Tennessee.
Losing Hughes was a shock that took several games for LSU to overcome.
But now their latest winning streak finds the Lady Tigers tied for fourth in the SEC standings, on the verge of locking up an NCAA Tournament at-large berth and still mathematically in contention for the regular-season conference title, just two games back of co-leaders Kentucky and Tennessee.
“The thing you hope to see out of this team is that we continue to get better, that we continue to grow from each game,” Caldwell said. “This team is making that run. We’ve to finish out. We’ve got a tough game (Sunday).”
Things have just been tough lately for Auburn (11-15, 3-10), which has lost four games in a row.
Tyrese Tanner, a 6-foot-1 guard/forward, leads Auburn with 10.4 points per game, while 6-0 guard Parrisha Simmons leads with 5.3 rebounds per contest.
The game will be televised on CST (Cox Cable Ch. 37) and can be heard locally on WBRP-FM (107.3).
Notes
General admission tickets are available for $1, and fans are encouraged to wear pink. Pink T-shirts will be placed on seats in the lower bowl of the arena. … LSU will pay tribute to breast cancer survivors with a “Parade of Survivors” at halftime. … Auburn leads the series with LSU 29-16, though LSU has won seven of the past 10 meetings since 2005. The teams split last season, Auburn winning 65-53 at home and LSU winning 55-52 at the PMAC. … Tournament ticket books for the first two rounds of the NCAA women’s tournament, March 18 and 20 at the PMAC, are on sale at the LSU Athletic Ticket office, at http://www.LSUtix.net or by calling (225) 578-2184. Adult ticket books are $25 and youth ticket books are $15. … Realtimerpi.com had LSU ranked No. 27 Saturday with a No. 25 strength of schedule.