BATON ROUGE — DeTrina White scored a season-high 19 points to go along with 10 rebounds as 16th-ranked LSU snapped a two-game losing streak with a 61-54 Southeastern Conference win over 20th-ranked Mississippi State here Sunday at the Maravich Assembly Center.
With the win, LSU improved to 11-3 overall and 2-1 in the SEC. Mississippi State, who opened the year with 11 straight wins, has now lost its last two games as they fell to 11-2 overall and 0-2 in league play.
Joining White in double-figures for LSU were Katrina Hibbert with 14 points and April Brown with 12. Hibbert also hauled in eight rebounds to go along with six assists. Marie Ferdinand, the second leading scorer in the SEC, was held to a season-low five points, 13 below her average.
Cynthia Hall paced Mississippi State with 18 points, while LaToya Thomas, the league’s leading scorer had just 13 points, eight below her average. Jennifer Fambrough added 10 points and nine rebounds for State.
“It wasn’t really smooth, but it was effective,” said LSU coach Sue Gunter, who won her 599th career game with the win on Sunday. “The thing that won the game for us is that we did a nice job on the defensive end of the floor. We didn’t get as many transition baskets as we should have, but we got enough.
“Mississippi State is a very hard team to defend. They have good outside shooters, they’re quick and they run the floor very well. Our play on the defensive end was the difference.”
Mississippi State’s 54 points on Sunday were 35 points below its season average of 89 a contest. It also marked the Lady Bulldogs’ lowest scoring output of the season. Mississippi State also shot a season-low 37.7 percent from the field.
“I feel like we have to make a little bit better adjustments,” Mississippi State coach Sharon Fanning said. “We are going to have to be in sync as a team to make the little changes. Right now little things affect us. I don’t feel like we did a good job of ball movement and flashing or getting the ball in the paint.”
State got off to a quick start as Hall hit a 3-pointer to open the game and then she connected on a pair of free throws at the 15:40 mark to give the Lady Bulldogs their biggest lead of the game at 6-2. LSU, behind the play of White, used a 14-4 run to take a 16-10 lead on a basket by Hibbert at the 11:08 mark.
Hibbert hit an 18-foot jumper at the 4:37 mark to give the Lady Tigers their biggest first half lead at 22-13. The Lady Bulldogs behind a pair of 3-pointers from Nitra Perry tied the score at 24-24 with 33.8 seconds left in the first half. White scored in the paint with 9.2 seconds left in the half to give the Lady Tigers a 26-24 halftime advantage.
Hibbert and White each scored in the opening minute of the second half to stretch LSU’s margin to 30-24 at the 19:03 mark. Hall hit back-to-back 3-pointers on State’s next two possessions to tie the game at 30-30 with 17:53 left.
LSU then held Mississippi State to only two points over the next six minutes as the Lady Tigers, behind a 3-pointer from Hibbert and a basket by Ferdinand, stretched the lead back to seven at 39-32 with 13:08 to play.
State continued to hang around, pulling to within 41-37 at the 10:33 mark on a Hall’s fourth 3-pointer of the game. LSU responded with a 9-1 to take its biggest lead, 50-38, on a 3-pointer by Brown with 4:53 left in the contest.
The LSU lead stayed at or above six points for the next three minutes until Fambrough connected on a jumper in the paint to get the Lady Bulldogs within 58-54 with 1:07 left. On the inbounds pass, Hibbert found a wide-open White who hit an uncontested layup to ice the win at 60-54 with 58 seconds left in the game.
“DeTrina had a great night,” Gunter said. “The thing that you have to appreciate about DeTrina is her hustle. She blocked shots, she went after loose balls on the floor. That’s the one thing that we have been lacking and I think DeTrina set the tone for us on both ends of the floor with her hustle.”
White’s hustle led her to her third straight double double, which is her SEC-leading fifth of the season. White also recorded her fifth consecutive double-figure rebound game.
For the game, LSU connected 50 percent from the field, however the Lady Tigers managed to hit just 9-of-18 from the free throw line. LSU was also outrebounded for the 11th time this year as State held a 37-34 advantage.
The Lady Tigers return to action on Thursday as LSU travels to Arkansas for a 7 p.m. contest.