BATON ROUGE, La. — Penn State coach Coquese Washington would like to believe her team’s experience beating LSU on the Lady Tigers’ home court in the second round of last year’s NCAA tournament would bode well for Tuesday night’s rematch.

She’d be pleased if LSU’s relative shortage of healthy players was something Penn State could exploit.

Washington is also wise enough — she has undergraduate and law degrees from Notre Dame, after all — to be cautious about the Lady Lions’ favored status against an LSU team that has won eight of its last nine games.

“They’re now playing their best basketball of the season, playing with a high level of confidence and playing on their home floor,” Washington said.

Third-seeded Penn State (26-5), which advanced with an 85-55, first-round demolition of Cal Poly on Sunday night, has a deeper lineup and better resume than LSU (21-11), which held on against Green Bay after nearly squandering an 18-point second-half lead.