LUBBOCK, Texas — The LSU Lady Tigers, playing its first game since the season-ending injury to starting point guard Kisha James in its final exhibition contest last Sunday, dropped its season opener to Texas Tech, 56-49, here Saturday night in the Lifetime Four in the Fall Classic.
The 13th-ranked Tigers return home to play UNC-Asheville at 7 p.m. Tuesday night at the Maravich Assembly Center.
The 23rd-ranked Red Raiders took advantage of 22 LSU turnovers and a big edge on the boards to get the win, but the Tigers playing without a true point guard made a game of it, cutting an eight-point halftime deficit to two points on several occasions in the second half.
During that rally, LSU was 0-of-4 at the free throw line in the final three minutes as part of a 2-for-8 night at the line in the game.
LSU was led by the 17 points of Marie Ferdinand and the 10 points of DeTrina White. Ferdinand, April Brown (8 points) and Katrina Hibbert (9 points) all had to go the full 40 minutes for the depleted Tigers. White scored all her points in the second half after sitting out 15 minutes of the opening 20 because of foul trouble.
Texas Tech had three players in double figures with 16 points from Aleah Johnson, 13 from Katrisa O’Neal and 12 from Plenette Pierson.
The Tigers were outrebounded, 42-31, and pounded on the offensive boards by the Red Raiders, 18-4.
LSU trailed 21-18 with 4:37 to go in the first half, but Texas Tech got hot and spread the margin out to eight, 29-21 at the intermission.
The Tigers stilled trailed by eight with 9:43 to go before making a run which eventually tied the game at 45-45 with 5:13 left on a jumper by White. But Texas Tech got the lead back and LSU couldn’t get it back even, scoring its final points with 2:15 to play when Hibbert made a jumper to cut it to 51-49.
Tech got the rest of its points at the free throw line to salt away the victory.
“Turnovers and offensive rebounds that obviously was the difference in the game,” said LSU Coach Sue Gunter. “If we would have cut our turnovers in half and their offensive rebounds in half, we win. Texas Tech has an outstanding team. They didn’t do anything that we didn’t expect.
“The breakdowns we had are inexcusable and we have to have DeTrina White in the game. She just spent too much time on the bench in the first half. We broke down a bit in the last minute in what we wanted to do, but give Texas Tech credit. It was a hard-fought game.”
UCLA beat North Carolina, 69-65, in the opening game of the doubleheader before 15,050 in Texas Tech’s new United Spirit Arena.
BOX SCORE
LSU (0-1) 49
Tardy 1-1 0-0 2; Brown 4-6 0-1 8; White 5-8 0-1 10; Hibbert 4-11 0-2 9; Ferdinand 8-15 1-3 17; Lymon 0-1 0-0 0; Johns 0-0 0-0 3; Porter 1-5 1-1 3. Totals: 23-47 2-8 49.
TEXAS TECH (1-0) 56
Johnson 8-14 0-2 16; Dickerson 4-8 0-0 8; Pierson 3-9 6-6 12; Schmucker 1-6 0-3 2; O’Neal 4-13 5-8 13; Washington 1-4; 0-0 2; Tarr 1-7 0-0 3 3; Ellison 0-0 0-2 0. Totals: 22-61 11-21 56.
Halftime score: Texas Tech 29, LSU 21. 3-pt FGs: LSU 1-2 (Hibbert 1-2); Texas Tech 1-9 (Schmucker 0-4; Tarr 1-5). Rebounds: LSU 31 (White 8); Texas Tech 42 (Pierson 9). A — 15,050.