No. 9 LSU opens its 2026-27 women’s basketball season at home Monday at 6 p.m. CT against Southeastern Louisiana, beginning a stretch that keeps the Tigers in Baton Rouge for their first seven opponents. The game will be shown on SEC Network, and fans can hear it on the LSU Sports Radio Network.
That means LSU’s first night of the season is also the first look at how a ranked team handles a familiar opponent inside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. LSU and Southeastern Louisiana are meeting for the 49th time, and LSU has won 37 of the previous 48. The Tigers are also coming off a 115-26 win over Southeastern Louisiana on Nov. 6, 2025, a result that matched the program record for margin of victory in the series and came after LSU shot 67.6% from the field.
The opener lands with a lot of momentum already built in. LSU’s exhibition game against Loyola produced seven Tigers in double figures, led by Mikaylah Williams with 23 points, while ZaKiyah Johnson added 22 and MiLaysia Fulwiley and Lola Lampley each scored 16. Grace Knox and Laila Reynolds finished with 12 apiece, and Anna Minaeva made her first collegiate appearance with 54 seconds left in the first quarter before finishing with 10 points and five rebounds. LSU also forced 36 turnovers, turned them into 48 points off takeaways and blocked five shots, with Fulwiley accounting for eight of the team’s 22 steals.
Still, Southeastern Louisiana is not walking into the building with nothing to show for the offseason. Aliyah Collins averaged 14.7 points in the Southland Conference last season and led the Lions with 91 assists, while Natalie Huff led the team with 49 steals as a freshman and Eryn McKinzie topped the roster in rebounding average at 5.0 while averaging 9.9 points. Southeastern Louisiana also added nine players, including Division I transfers Micah Cooper and Lillian Merow, and Cooper arrives from Carrollton, Texas, after averaging 13.3 points per game at Hebron High.
LSU’s schedule does not loosen after Monday. The Tigers host Texas Southern on Thursday, Nov. 5 at 7 p.m., and the first seven games stay at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center before LSU heads to Fort Myers for a multi-team event. For now, the season begins with a top-10 team at home, a familiar in-state opponent across the floor, and enough new pieces on both sides to make the first regular-season test worth watching past the first few possessions.
