BATON ROUGE — Marie Ferdinand scored 21 points to lead three LSU players in double-figures as the ninth-ranked Lady Tigers held off Florida, 71-66, to clinch third place in the Southeastern Conference here Thursday at the Maravich Assembly Center.
With the win, the Lady Tigers tied the school-record for SEC wins in a season as LSU improved to 10-3 in league play. LSU ran its overall record to 21-5 overall. Florida fell to 15-11 overall and 5-8 in SEC action.
Joining Ferdinand in double-figures for the Lady Tigers were April Brown with 19 points and Katrina Hibbert with 12. Tonya Washington scored a game-high 31 points, including 26 in the second half, to pace the Lady Gators, who lost to LSU for the third straight time.
“You have to give Florida credit because we just could not put them away,” LSU coach Sue Gunter said. “Florida came in here with its back against the wall and they just kept fighting back. This is a big win for us. We wanted to get the 10th win in SEC play and now we’ll have a chance to get No. 11 on Sunday against South Carolina.
“Obviously we didn’t have an answer for (Tonya) Washington. She was amazing, but we hit some big baskets when we needed to. I thought consistently April’s (Brown) offense kept us in it.”
LSU looked as if they were going to run away with the contest early in the second half as the Lady Tigers built a 43-27 lead at the 18:08 mark on a jumper by Ferdinand. The Lady Tiger lead stayed above double-figures until the 9:22 mark when Washington hit a jumper to pull Florida to within 58-50.
LSU’s Angelia Crockett and DeTrina White scored on back-to-back possessions for LSU to extend the lead back to double-digits, 62-51, with 6:59 left. Washington took over after that as she scored seven of Florida’s next nine points to pull the Lady Gators to within 62-60 on a 3-pointer with 3:23 left. Hibbert answered with a pair of free throws and then Brown banked in a 3-pointer as LSU stretched the lead to six, 67-61 with 2:16 left.
After the teams exchanged baskets, Washington hit a 25-foot jumper to cut the lead back to three, 69-66 with 35 seconds left. LSU’s Crockett missed the front-end of a one-and-one with 35 seconds left and then again with 22 seconds left setting up Florida’s final attempt to tie the contest.
However, as Washington attempted to get open for a 3-pointer, Hibbert knocked the ball away and found a wide-open Ferdinand for a game-clinching layup with 4.6 seconds left.
“It was great job by Marie and Katrina reading that final play,” Gunter said. “All we were trying to do was keep them from hitting a 3-pointer on their final possession.”
In the first half, the Lady Tigers scored the first seven points of the contest and led by as many 13 points, 30-17, at the 2:44 mark after a 3-pointer by Brown. LSU led 34-24 at halftime.
“I told my team at halftime that LSU made a big mistake when they didn’t bury us,” Florida coach Carol Ross said. “That was as poorly as we’ve played all season long and I knew that we weren’t finished and that we would play much better in the second half.
“I’m just disappointed that we weren’t able to pull this one off.”
LSU returns to action on Sunday as the Lady Tigers play host to South Carolina at 2 p.m. at the Maravich Assembly Center.