BATON ROUGE — Marie Ferdinand scored 23 points, including 17 in the second half, as ninth-ranked LSU clinched at least a fourth place finish in the Southeastern Conference with a 58-50 win over Vanderbilt here Thursday at the Maravich Assembly Center.
With the win, the Lady Tigers improved to 20-4 overall and 9-2 in the SEC. The 20 wins is LSU’s fourth 20-win season over the last five years. The nine conference wins guarantees LSU a first round bye at next month’s SEC Tournament and it’s also one shy of tying the school-record for conference wins.
Vanderbilt had its three-game SEC winning streak snapped and the Commodores dropped to 17-9 overall and 5-6 in league play. LSU has now won the last three meetings between the teams.
Katrina Hibbert joined Ferdinand in double-figures for LSU with 14 points, while DeTrina White added 11 points, all in the second half. Zuzi Klimesova and Chantelle Anderson led Vanderbilt with 18 points each.
“I am proud of our team and they way we just flat gutted it out in the second half,” LSU coach Sue Gunter said. “The first half we just hung on for dear life. Our good defensive play in the first half really saved us. We found a little energy in the second half.
“Marie (Ferdinand) got turned on in the second half and when she finds that kind of energy there really isn’t anything you can do to stop her.”
After both teams struggled to score in the first half, each squad opened the second half on a scoring frenzy. LSU extended its 20-17 halftime lead to 30-23 on a jumper layup by Ferdinand at the 17:24 mark. LSU’s kept the lead at seven for the next four minutes until the Commodores used an 8-0 run to take a 37-36 advantage on a 3-pointer from Jillian Danker at the 9:32 mark.
The teams exchanged leads five times over the next six minutes until a 3-point play by Ferdinand gave the Lady Tigers the lead for good at 47-44 with 3:11 to play. Vanderbilt’s Klimesova answered with a jumper from the right baseline, before Ferdinand scored again, this time on an 18-foot jumper 30 seconds later to give the Lady Tigers a 49-46 with 2:28 remaining.
“(Marie) is just a very, very talented offensive player,” Vanderbilt coach Jim Foster said. “Not many players can take you off the dribble or pull up like she can.”
Vanderbilt’s Anderson sliced the lead to 49-48 on a basket underneath with 1:53 to play. LSU responded with another basket as White converted on a layup with 1:31 to go to give the Lady Tigers a 51-48 lead. After a Vanderbilt timeout, the Commodores turned the ball over and White hit a layup to give LSU a 53-48 lead. Vanderbilt cut the lead to three one final time before the Lady Tigers score the final five points of the game, four coming on free throws, for the final margin.
“If you look at the second half, we had some freshman breakdowns,” Foster said.
The first half was a defensive struggle as each team went extended periods of time without scoring. LSU went over six minutes without scoring, while Vanderbilt had a stretch of seven minutes without a point. Trailing 17-14 with 2:52 to play in the half, LSU closed with a 6-0 run to take a 20-17 lead at intermission.
After shooting just 39 percent in the first half, the Lady Tigers hit 63.6 percent of their shots in the second half to finish with a 51.1 percent field goal shooting which marks the first time this season a team has shot 50 percent or better against Vanderbilt this season. LSU also outrebounded the much taller Commodores, 26-25.
LSU returns to action on Sunday when they travel to Knoxville, Tenn., to face second-ranked Tennessee at 3 p.m.