No. 6 LSU faces Road Test Thursday at No. 16, Tennessee – LSU

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – No. 6 LSU (17-0, 2-0 SEC) will face a road test in the No. 16 Tennessee (13-1, 1-1 SEC) at 5:30pm CT at Thompson-Boling Arena.

With the College Football Playoff in action on Thursday, the LSU-Tennessee game will be streamed only on SEC Network+. Patrick Wright and Shaeeta Williams will call the action on the LSU Sports Radio Network.

Thursday will mark LSU’s first road game against a ranked team this season. Tennessee suffered its first loss of the season Sunday at home against No. 9 Oklahoma. Trailing the Sooners by 16 in the final quarter, the Lady Vols nearly came back but fell short by a point. LSU is now one of five remaining undefeated teams across the country, and the Tigers own the nation’s longest winning streak.

“Every game matters, but every game is not make or break,” coach Kim Mulkey said of the SEC slate. “Here’s what you do; you win the games you need to win. You hit someone you shouldn’t; you shock them. And then you take care of business at home. If you do these things, you will be one of the teams to host (NCAA Tournament games).

Aneesah Morrow enters Thursday’s game with 14 points and 2,500 in her career. She is 33 rebounds shy of 1,500 in her career. In NCAA DI history, there have only been six players to reach both 2,500 points and 1,500 rebounds in their careers. Morrow’s 15 double-doubles and 14.0 rebounds per game lead the nation.

Kim Caldwell has brought a new style of play in his first season as Tennessee’s head coach. The Lady Vols’ identity so far under Caldwell has been fast-paced with heavy pressure and shooting a lot of threes. Their high-octane press has allowed the Lady Vols to rank No. 2 in the country with a revenue margin of +12.6; they lead the country in forcing 27.6 turnovers per game. game.

“You can’t turn the ball over against their press,” Coach Mulkey said. “It’s more of a run and jump press with a lot of length and speed. You can’t turn the ball over and you have to really, really work hard to keep them off the offensive boards.”

Tennessee’s fast pace has allowed them to lead the nation with 97.3 points per game. match. LSU is close behind at No. 3 nationally with 91.7 points per match. Tennessee also leads the country with 20.9 offensive rebounds per game, and LSU is close behind in the top-10 at 17.4.

“The style of play is like nothing I’ve ever seen,” Coach Mulkey said. “They score a lot of points and they make you play fast with their press. It will be quite a challenge to prevent them from scoring in the nineties. We also score a lot of points.

“I have to stress the defense. At some point we have to try to stop them from scoring as much as they want to score.”

Defensively, LSU owns the best mark in the conference, holding opponents to 33.8 percent shooting from the field, while Tennessee’s 44.5 percent field goal defense ranks last in the conference.

With Tennessee’s press comes a lot of opportunities to score on the other end when a team hits the full court pressure. Tennessee has allowed 67.4 points per game. match, which is no. 15 of the SEC. In the Lady Vols’ first loss of the season Sunday against Oklahoma, Tennessee forced 31 turnovers and gave up 48 points in the paint.

The Lady Vols also take a lot of three pointers. Tennessee has taken 93 more three-pointers than any other team in the SEC despite playing the fewest games. They make a nation-leading 12 threes per game on a nation-leading 37 attempts per game.