LEXINGTON, Ky. — LSU used a stellar first half shooting over 50 percent and then defensively held off several Kentucky charges in the second half to score a 66-59 win over the Lady Kats in Memorial Gym Thursday.
The win lifts the 14th-ranked Lady Tigers to 13-3 overall and 4-1, on top of the Southeastern Conference with Auburn. Three of LSU’s four league wins so far have come on the road against Georgia, Arkansas and Kentucky. LSU returns home to face Ole Miss Sunday at 2 p.m. in the Maravich Assembly Center in a game designated to celebrate the 25th year of LSU women’s basketball with several former Lady Tigers expected to be on hand for the contest.
Kentucky falls to 11-6 and 3-2 in the league.
LSU shot 52 percent in the first half of play and built a 39-28 halftime advantage. In the second half, the Tiger offense sputtered a bit and Kentucky battled back to within three points on a couple of occasions late in the game before the Tigers put it away.
“We’ve been able to put the brakes on when we had to. We played very well in the first half and then we let them creep back. We didn’t get off to a good start in the first five minutes of the second half. Kentucky is a very good team and we didn’t handle the pressure well in the second half. We missed some easy shots as well, but it’s an SEC road win and I’ll take it,” said LSU coach Sue Gunter.
Offensively, the big stars for the Tigers were April Brown and Marie Ferdinand. Brown hit 8-of-11 field goals, including one for a three-pointer to lead LSU with 19 points, while Ferdinand had 17 points. Katrina Hibbert added 13 more.
“We just wanted to come out and jump on them early and take care of the basketball,” said Ferdinand. “Those were the two big things Coach Gunter talked about and that’s what gave us the victory.”
In the first half, that’s exactly what LSU did, jumping all over the Lady Kats over the last 10 minutes building as much as a 12-point lead on a 16-3 run, committing just seven first half turnovers.
But in the second half, the Kentucky pressure and some not so crisp offensive possessions allowed the Lady Kats to slowly work themselves back into the game. But after Kentucky charged early in the half, LSU was able to work the lead back to 12, 52-40, with 10:15 to play on a Ferdinand three-pointer.
The Kats came again, cutting it to 56-53 on a five point play by Tiffany Wait. Wait, who had 12 points for Kentucky, hit a three-pointer, stole the inbounds pass and made two free throws on a foul to put Kentucky in it at the 5:30 mark. But layups by Brown and Hibbert and another Brown field goal made it 62-55.
Kentucky closed again to three in the final 70 seconds, but Hibbert got another layup and Angie Crockett two free throws to close it out and give LSU its first three-consecutive road win streak since the 1982-83 season.
“We are fortunate we won the game, but I will turn right back around and say when they cut it to three, we dug our heels in. We can’t continue to do that. When we are intense and when we are focused, we can break down and play,” said Gunter. “We’re not a big team so we have to do a good job on the defensive end of the floor of helping, of pressuring and playing smart. So far we have been able to do that.
“We were very tentatively in the second half attacking the goal and we weren’t as aggressive as we need to be.”
DeTrina White, still bothered by a bad back, was limited to just four points, but had her seventh consecutive double figure rebound game with 10 boards. Shantia Owens had 23 points to lead Kentucky.