For the first time in the history of the LSU women’s basketball program, the Tigers have started the season 0-3 after showing up dead on arrival for their 2020-21 home season opener.
UCF scored 22 straight points, LSU missed its first 17 field goal attempts and the Knights led by double digits in the game’s final 32 minutes in a 58-48 beatdown of the winless Tigers Friday night in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
LSU led 3-0 (all on free throws) before the visiting Knights (2-0) allowed Tigers’ freshman guard Sharna Ayres to score LSU’s first field goal with 4:52 left in the second quarter. The Tigers went 0 for 7 from the field in the first quarter.
“I don’t think I’ve ever experienced when we did not make one field goal, so it’s really hard to make that up,” LSU coach Nikki Fargas said. “It’s a combination of putting a lot of pressure on our defense, but we’re also not scoring the basketball. We’ve got players that have experience; we’ve got players that started for us last year, and the expectation for them to come in and finish off what they started. We’re struggling there, offensively execution, spending a lot of time on that.”
After shooting a frigid 3 of 24 from the field enroute to a sizable 30-12 halftime deficit, LSU thawed its shooting a bit in the second half. But the Tigers had dug a hole too deep to climb out of.
Khayla Porter and Sarah Shematsi led LSU with 15 points. UCF’s Courtajia Sanders scored a game-high22 and Brittney Smith added 15.
LSU doesn’t play again until Dec. 14 when it faces Texas Southern at 5 p.m.
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