The South Carolina Gamecocks women's basketball team travels to Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Thursday for a rematch with the LSU Tigers. Carolina opened Southeastern Conference play with a game against LSU at the Colonial Life Arena, this season, just over 2 weeks ago.

After a hard-fought 12-point win against USC, the Tigers went on to annihilate Arkansas (65-38) and then lost their only home game (so far) to the Auburn Tigers, 62-64 in overtime. They followed that up with a road loss to Ole Miss, 71-80. The stats for those games tell you a little bit, but not the whole story.  Against Auburn, the Tigers shot only 37.3% from the floor and team leader Allison Hightower had a much less productive outing than is expected from her: 9 points on 4 of 15 shooting and 2 steals. Against Ole Miss, Hightower had a better game with 13 points and a career-high 11 rebounds, while the team hit 44.4% from the floor. However, they shot only 21% from behind the 3-point arc ( 3 for 14) while allowing Ole Miss to hit 50% from the 3-point line, hitting 9 of 18 shots.

So, it looks like LSU is not a "super team" at all; in fact, they may have to fight to get into the top four SEC slots for a coveted SEC Tournament first round bye, something they have been pretty accustomed to since Seimone Augustus joined the team.  As of today, they are 2-2 in SEC play and tied for 5th place in the league (with Kentucky), while USC (3-2) is tied for 4th place with Mississippi State and the Florida Gators. First place is anchored by an undefeated Tennessee team (4-0), second place belongs solely to the Georgia Bulldogs at 3-1 and Ole Miss holds down third place.  WHAT?

Allison Hightower is still the key for LSU; despite a couple of poor outings, she still leads the scoring with a 16.1 point average. She also has 41 steals on the season. LaSondra Barrett is second in scoring with 12.6 points per game and leads the team in rebounding with 6.4 per game; Taylor Turnbow scores 7.6 per game, with 5.6 rebounds and leads the team with 14 blocked shots. LaTear Eason leads the team in assists with 61. LSU relies heavily on every player to contribute to their balanced attack and needs a solid game from each one to ensure a win. The Gamecocks were unable to put enough pressure on the Tigers, in their first game, to really disrupt the flow of play. Carolina also had trouble getting junior guard Valerie Nainima open for shots, early in the game, allowing LSU to get a lead and defend it--which they are pretty good at.

Since the first SEC game, Nainima has learned to adjust and find some openings and freshman center Kelsey Bone has come to expect the pushing and shoving inside that is so characteristic of SEC play, and she has also adjusted.  The rest of the guard play for the Gamecocks varies from game to game; luckily, head coach Dawn Staley has plenty of guards to choose from. If one seems to have turnover problems, she has other players to turn to. Freshman guard Ieasia Walker has shown flashes of absolute brilliance, at times, alternating with some ordinary turnover-plagued games. Junior point guard Samone Kennedy's play is a bit uneven, as well, but she can do it all. Bone will have inside help from junior forward Jewel May and sophomore forward Charenee Stephens, both excellent rebounders, along with freshman forward Ashley Bruner off the bench.  Good execution and taking care of the ball will keep USC in the game against LSU; if they can stay close throughout the game, there is always a chance to deal the Tigers another home loss.

The game is Thursday at the Pete Maravich Center at 8 pm (Eastern Time.)