BATON ROUGE — Katrina Hibbert scored a season-high 24 points and DeTrina White added 17 points and 10 rebounds as 13th-ranked LSU led from start to finish in its 73-56 victory over SMU here Wednesday at the Maravich Assembly Center.
LSU, which has now won seven straight since a season-opening loss to Texas Tech, improved to 7-1 overall. SMU dropped to 3-4 overall with its fourth straight defeat. The Lady Tiger victory was their 13th straight home win and it also extended LSU’s school-record home winning streak against non-conference teams to 40 straight. LSU is 24-1 in December games since the 1995-96 season.
LSU coach Sue Gunter moved to within five victories of 600 for her career with the victory. In 36 years at the collegiate level, Gunter has won 595 games, which ranks fourth all-time in LSU women’s basketball history.
Joining Hibbert and White in double-figures for the Lady Tigers was Marie Ferdinand with 18 points. Karlin Kennedy led SMU with 19 points, while Nici Johnson added 12 points for the Mustangs.
“It was not exactly a clinic,” Gunter said. “I thought we were a little flat and a little erratic. We had spurts of doing some things very well and then just about the time we got things going, we’d break our own momentum.
“This is not one of those performances that will get us where we want to go. I thought we did some good things but we were very, very inconsistent.”
The Lady Tigers had one of their best stretches of basketball of the year in the first 10 minutes of the contest as LSU quickly built a 16-5 advantage on a layup by Angelia Crockett at the 13:36 mark. LSU increased the margin to 20-5 two minutes later on another Crockett basket and the
Lady Tigers led 26-9 on a layup by Ferdinand at the 8:38 mark. However, SMU hung around as the Mustangs, behind a pair of 3-pointers by Vanita Krouch and Kenni Patton, got to within 28-19 at the 4:02 mark. LSU closed the half with an 11-7 run to take a 39-26 lead at halftime.
“We kept letting SMU back in the game,” Gunter said. “If we continue do things like that, not putting a team away when you have the chance, it will come back to haunt us. We’d stretch it out and then all of a sudden they were back to within 10 or 11.”
LSU increased its halftime lead to 47-30 on a bucket by Ferdinand at the 17:22 mark, but once again SMU didn’t fold as the Mustangs got six straight points from Kennedy to get to within 11 at 49-38 with 12:32 to play. SMU scored only seven points over the next nine minutes as the Lady Tigers blew the game open, 65-45, on a 3-pointer from Hibbert at the 4:10 mark. SMU scored seven straight points over the next two minutes to pull to within 65-52 on a 3-pointer by Johnson with 1:36 to play.
LSU closed out the contest by scoring on its final four possession, which included a 16-foot jumper by Ferdinand at the buzzer for the final score of 73-56.
“I’m very disappointed in our team’s play,” SMU coach Rhonda Rompola said. “The lack of intensity and lack of emotion was terrible.”
For the game, the Lady Tigers shot 48.5 percent from the field, while limiting the Mustangs to just 33 percent shooting. SMU outrebounded LSU, 41-38, however, the Mustangs committed 24 turnovers compared to just for the Lady Tigers.
LSU returns to action on Sunday as the Lady Tigers play host to Mercer at 2 p.m. at the Maravich Assembly Center.