MORAGA, Calif. — Marie Ferdinand scored a career-best 21 points and April Brown added 19 as 22nd-ranked LSU survived a scare from St. Mary’s with a 68-65 overtime win over the Gaels in the championship game of the Walnut Creek Holiday Inn Thanksgiving Classic here Saturday.
The win marked the third straight victory for the Lady Tigers, who improved to 3-1 overall. St. Mary’s, who participated in the NCAA Tournament last year, fell to 1-2 overall.
Joining Ferdinand and Brown in double-figures for LSU was DeTrina White with 12 points to go along with a game-high eight rebounds. Katrina Hibbert added eight points and a game-high seven assists for the Lady Tigers.
“I thought our pressure was the difference,” LSU coach Sue Gunter said. “We didn’t play very well early, but we found a way to stay in the game. The game really boiled down to who was going to run out of gas first and I think we had a little more left in the tank at the end.
“This is a big win for us. St. Mary’s has a very good basketball team.”
LSU, who trailed by as many as seven points in the opening minutes of the second half, tied the game at 44-44 on a free throw by Brown at the 9:31 mark. LSU then took its first lead since the opening minutes of the contest, 49-46, on a 3-pointer by Ferdinand at the 7:53 mark. From there the teams battled back and forth as the lead exchanged hands four more times in the final six minutes of the game.
Trailing 57-55 with 2:07 left in regulation, Ferdinand tied the score again at 57-57 on jumper with 1:48 to play. Regulation ended with the teams tied at 57-57 as Ferdinand missed a jumper with eight seconds left that would have won the game for the Lady Tigers.
In overtime, St. Mary’s jumped on LSU early as Leslie Quintal hit a 3-pointers on just 19 seconds into the period giving the Gaels a 60-57 lead. LSU’s Brown countered with a jumper to pull LSU with 60-59 20 seconds later and then the Lady Tigers took the lead at 61-60 on basket by White.
St. Mary’s Tracy Morris hit a jumper to give the Gaels their last lead at 62-61 with 3:34 left. From there it was all LSU as Brown hit another jumper giving the Lady Tigers the lead for good at 63-62 with 3:09 to play. White added another basket and then Hibbert hit a jumper that followed a Ferdinand steal to increase the Lady Tiger lead to 67-62 with 56 seconds left.
Following a missed free throw by Ferdinand, Morris hit a 3-pointer with 12 seconds left to pull St. Mary’s within 67-65, but LSU’s Hibbert hit a free throw with 11 seconds left as the Lady Tigers held on for the victory.
“It’s a win,” Gunter said. “I thought we did some good things out there and I was really pleased with the play of Angelia Crockett. She was the difference for us tonight. She came in and ran the point and that opened up some things for Marie and Katrina.”
Crockett finished with two points and one assist.
LSU (3-1)
Ferdinand 10-26 0-2 21, Brown 8-13 3-4 19, White 6-8 0-2 12, Hibbert 3-8 1-2 8, Porter 0-1 0-0 0, Tardy 2-5 2-2 6, Crockett 1-1 0-0 2, Johns 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 30-64 6-12 68.
St. Mary’s (1-2)
Abraham 2-3 1-1 5, Quintal 3-8 0-0 9, Jolley 1-5 0-0 2, T. Morris 8-17 0-1 18, Jm. Dosty 5-6 2-2 12, J. Morris 0-0 0-0 0, Parker 3-5 2-2 10, Prado 0-0 0-0 0, Jk. Dosty 4-9 1-3 9. Totals 26-53 6-9 65.
Halftime – St. Mary’s 34, LSU 29. End of Regulation – St. Mary’s 57, LSU 57. 3-point goals – LSU 2-6 (Hibbert 1-4, Ferdinand 1-1, Brown 0-1), St. Mary’s 7-17 (Quintal 3-7, T. Morris 2-6, Parker 2-2), Rebounds – LSU 31 (White 8), St. Mary’s 37 (Morris, Dosty 8), Assists – LSU 15 (Hibbert 7), St. Mary’s 20 (Quintal, Jolley, T. Morris 5), Total Fouls – LSU 14, St. Mary’s 15. Fouled out – None. Att. – 1,055.