BATON ROUGE — Katrina Hibbert led five LSU players in double-figures with 23 points as the 11th-ranked Lady Tigers posted the second-largest margin of victory in school history in their 103-35 win over Jackson State here Tuesday in Baton Rouge.
The 68-point margin of victory is the second-highest winning total for the Lady Tigers trailing only the 104-28 victory over Prairie View on Dec. 1, 1995.
The win also marked the 598th victory of LSU coach Gunter’s career. Gunter, who is just two wins away from becoming only the fourth coach in women’s basketball history to win 600 games, has a career mark of 598-267.
LSU’s victory over Jackson State ran the Lady Tigers winning streak to 10 straight and it also marked their 16th straight win at home. LSU’s non-conference home winning streak was also extended to a school-record 43 straight games. LSU improved to 10-1 overall, while Jackson State lost for the fifth time in six games and fell to 3-6.
Joining Hibbert in double-figures for the Lady Tigers were Marie Ferdinand with 19 points, Ke-Ke Tardy with 18, and Angelia Crockett and April Brown with 10 each. DeTrina White led the Lady Tigers with 10 rebounds, while Crockett dished out a career-best nine assists. Every LSU player scored in the contest, including Allison Weiner, who finished with a career-high four points.
“That’s the type of game we’ve been looking for,” Gunter said. “We’ve talked about staying focused and keeping our intensity level up regardless of the game situation and we did that tonight. I think the most impressive thing about the win is our 29 assists. That tells you a lot about this team.”
LSU wasted little time in putting the contest away as the Lady Tigers hit seven of their first eight shots in racing out to a 15-2 lead just four minutes into the game. LSU extended the margin to 34-6 on a layup by Crockett at the 10:41 mark. LSU shot 72.7 percent in the first half on its way to a 55-18 lead at intermission. Hibbert’s first half scoring total of 19 points was one point more than Jackson State’s first half total.
The LSU starters played only the first eight minutes of the second half as the Lady Tigers held Jackson State to just two points in the first nine minutes of the second stanza. By the time the LSU starters left the floor, the Lady Tigers had built a 79-20 lead at the 12:34 mark on a fast-break layup by Hibbert.
Things got so bad for Jackson State in the second half that even the team’s bus driver, who was sitting on the bench, got a technical foul with just under a minute left in the contest.
“LSU had a great game plan and they executed for a full 40 minutes,” Jackson State coach Andrew Pennington said. “We were in a little awe of LSU but the thing that really hurt us were the turnovers.”
For the game, Jackson State turned the ball over 31 times, including 18 in the first half. Jackson State shot just 23.7 percent from the field compared to 62.7 percent shooting for LSU.
Genina Johnson and Alisha Richard led Jackson State with 10 points apiece.
LSU returns to action on Friday when the Lady Tigers travel to New Orleans to face 23rd-ranked Tulane at noon.