BATON ROUGE — Marie Ferdinand scored 21 points to lead four LSU players in double-figures as the 13th-ranked Lady Tigers blew past the Mississippi All-Stars, 81-66, here Sunday at the Maravich Assembly Center.
The Lady Tigers will now take the next five days off before opening their regular-season on Saturday at the Four in the Fall Classic in Lubbock, Texas. Pairings for the Four in the Fall Classic, which includes LSU, host Texas Tech, UCLA and North Carolina, will be announced on Monday.
Casting a shadow over Sunday’s exhibition win was the fact that LSU starting point guard Kisha James left the contest with just over a minute left with a knee injury. The extent of James’ injury will not be known until Monday. James’ right knee buckled as she hit the floor after jumping to make a pass. She had to be carried off the floor.
“Anytime someone goes down with a knee injury, it doesn’t look good,” LSU coach Sue Gunter said. “There is no reason to panic before you know and there really is nothing we can do about it at this point because it’s a part of our game. If we have to adjust, we’ll adjust.”
For the second straight contest, Gunter was not pleased with LSU’s performance despite the 15-point victory.
“I don’t think any of us were pleased with the way we played,” Gunter said. “They played us dead-even in the second half. The thing that bothered me the most were the turnovers. Anytime you turn the ball over 26 times against a team that’s not pressing you, you have a problem.
“The other thing that I was not pleased with was our inability to defend. I felt like as if we didn’t work very hard on the defensive end and that’s something we are going to have to change.”
Tina Webb of the Mississippi All-Stars led all scorers with 32 points on 12-of-24 shooting from the field.
Joining Ferdinand in double-figures for LSU were James with 15 points, Ke-Ke Tardy with 14 points and DeTrina White with 13 points. April Brown added eight points and a game-high nine rebounds.
The contest was never really close as the Lady Tigers scored the game’s first 12 points capped on a 3-pointer by Katrina Hibbert at the 16:38 mark. The All-Stars pulled to within nine at 16-7 following a pair of free throws by Webb at the 13:58 mark. However, LSU stretched the lead back to a comfortable margin at 29-11 on a jumper by Ferdinand at the 10:48 mark.
LSU, despite 13 first half turnovers, led 44-29 at halftime.
In the second half, the All-Stars got as close as nine points, 53-44, on a jumper by Carrissa Pruitt at the 12:52 mark. LSU responded with a 13-2 run over the next four minutes to extend the margin to 20, 66-46, on a steal and layup by James. LSU’s lead never dipped under 11 points the rest of the way as the Lady Tigers coasted to the victory.
LSU shot 50.8 percent from the field, while limiting the All-Stars to 43 percent. The Lady Tigers also outrebounded the All-Stars 49-28.