Getting in the zone

• By WILLIAM WEATHERS
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Mar 29, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:25 a.m.

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NEW ORLEANS — For a Hall of Fame coach such as Van Chancellor, it was the next logical step in the growth of LSU’s program.

Should LSU aspire to join the ranks of Connecticut and not only return to the Women’s Final Four for a record-tying fifth year, but win a national championship, Chancellor recognized the area most responsible for keeping the Lady Tigers from reaching the apex of women’s college basketball and that was their shooting proficiency from outside.

When teams threw up aggressive zone defenses and draped two and three defenders around All-American center Sylvia Fowles the Lady Tigers ability to successfully execute from outside of the paint and truly make the opposition pay for its attention to Fowles have been glaring.

Nearly a year later after taking over the LSU program, Chancellor will have the opportunity to gauge his team’s progress in that department when the No. 2 seeded Lady Tigers (29-5) face No. 3 seed Oklahoma State (27-7) in a NCAA regional semifinal today at 1:30 at the New Orleans Arena.

“From the moment I was named coach, every day since then, we’ve played for this moment right here,” Chancellor said during a news conference Friday. “Every thought process we had, we would think we were going to see a zone defense.

“We thought to win a national championship we would have to beat a good zone defensive team,” Chancellor said. “We would have to beat a team that was going to try and take the ball away from Sylvia. Now let’s see if we’re ready.”

One of top items on Chancellor’s agenda after coming out of a mini retirement following a 10-year stay with the Houston Comets of the WNBA was to work on and improve on the team’s shooting psyche.

That started with senior guard Quianna Chaney and trickled down to any player with perimeter shooting responsibility which included LSU’s senior backcourt tandem of Erica White and RaShonta LeBlanc.

LSU has improved from 43 percent to 45.7 percent from the field and nearly three percentage points from behind the arc to 36 percent. The Lady Tigers are also averaging just over five more points per game to complement their highly acclaimed defense.

“It shows how deep we are as a team,” said Chaney, who experienced the greatest improvement, particularly from 3-point range where she’s made 39.2 percent of her treys compared to 33.8 a year ago. “It’s not just me or RaShonta. It’s the total team. We’re able to step up in a lot of areas that people don’t really realize.”

LSU is tied nationally with Connecticut in allowing just 50 points per game and that barrier is expected to get a stern test from Oklahoma State which is making its first Sweet 16 appearance in 17 years.

The Cowgirls ranked 10th nationally during the regular season and were tops in the Big 12 Conference with a 76.3 scoring average.

Sophomore Andrea Riley, a first team all-Big 12 selection, provides LSU with a rare defensive challenge, where she delivers 23 points per game from the point guard position. Senior guard Danielle Green is the team’s other double-figure scorer at 13.7 points.