ATHENS, Ga. — LSU women’s basketball coach Sue Gunter said that a win by the 23rd-ranked Lady Tigers at second-ranked Georgia would be “monstrous” for the LSU program.
The ever-growing monster known as the LSU Lady Tigers gobbled up the Lady Bulldogs, 80-74, Thursday night at Stegeman Coliseum.
The win puts LSU at 5-1 on the season with five straight victories and 1-0 in the Southeastern Conference in the only conference game which will be played in the month of December. The win marks the fifth-straight year the Lady Tigers have won their SEC opener.
LSU won the game by staying close and battling Georgia for some 37 minutes before taking the lead for good and quieting the crowd of 2,548 as Georgia fell to 7-1. The win was LSU’s biggest road triumph over a ranked opponent ever. The highest previous LSU foe to fall on the road was fourth-ranked Ole Miss in 1989.
April Brown led LSU with a career high 25 points, with Marie Ferdinand getting 21, Katrina Hibbert 16 and DeTrina white 10. Tawana McDonald led Georgia with 16 points, with Kelly Miller getting 14 and Deana Nolan 11.
“Let me give kudos to a very good coaching staff, they are the ones who put the game plan in place and break down the films. We managed to put it all together and the kids just did a great job tonight,” said LSU Coach Sue Gunter on her 593rd career victory. “They never panicked and that is one of the great things about having an experienced team.
“They were not intimidated by who they were playing or where they were or the ranking. They simply go out and play and play very, very hard. I’m so proud of them and so proud for them. They are just going to fight you until there is nothing left.”
Make no doubt about it, LSU had to fight for the opportunity to be there at the end of the game as Georgia tried several times to put some separation in the score after LSU had only two leads in the first 36 minutes, 6-5 after two Angie Crockett free throws and 16-15 on a Brown lay in with 13:01 left in the first half.
But an 8-0 run quickly wiped out that LSU lead and when Camille Murphy hit a three-pointer from the corner with 9:13 to go in the half, LSU was down 23-16. The Tigers fought back to a 37-37 tie in the final middle of the half, but a three-point play by Kiesha Brown gave Georgia a 40-37 halftime advantage.
The scoring run for Georgia continued out of the dressing room with Nolan hitting a baseline jumper and getting a fast break lay in to put the Bulldogs up 44-37 and LSU looked to be reeling just one minute into the second half.
But every time Georgia would go up, LSU kept coming back, tying the game six times in the second half.
“We felt is we could keep it close until the end of the game, we could win it and we did,” said Brown.
The game turned LSU’s way for good in the final 2:37 when White scored off an inside pass and then Hibbert (who had seven assists and six steals) dropped in a jumper to give the Tigers a 74-72 lead, forcing a Georgia timeout with 1:54 to play.
The Bulldogs got only one layup basket the rest of the way, as Marie Ferdinand’s 18-footer with 33 seconds left was sandwiched around four free throws for the final margin.
“It’s a big win,” said Ferdinand, who also had six assists and four steals in 40 minutes. “A lot of people didn’t give us any hope of winning in Georgia. It was a war, but it was a war we thought we could win. For us to keep our composure in this environment was big. Everything Georgia would get a lead, we remained patient on offense and stayed with it.”
For Georgia coach Andy Landers, who had to watch LSU shoot 69.6 percent (16-of-23) in the second half from the field and 52.6 percent for the game it was a bitter pill to swallow.
“We didn’t play defense,” said Landers. “We gave up layups. We missed shots on one end and didn’t get back on the other.”
LSU is now off for final exams until the nationally-televised game on ESPN2 from the Maravich Assembly Center on Michigan on Dec. 11 at 1 p.m. as the front-half of a day-night women’s-men’s doubleheader. LSU’s next conference action is at home on Jan. 6 against Tennessee.