BATON ROUGE — Katrina Hibbert’s last regular-season home game will be one for the record books as the senior scored a game-high 24 points to go with eight assists in leading the ninth-ranked LSU women’s basketball team to a 70-55 win over South Carolina here Sunday at the Maravich Assembly Center.
With the win, the Lady Tigers broke the school-record for Southeastern Conference victories with 11 this year. Last year’s team previously held the mark with 10 SEC wins.
The Lady Tigers, the No. 3 seed at next week’s SEC Tournament in Chattanooga, Tenn., improved to 22-5 overall and 11-3 in league play. South Carolina fell to 13-14 overall and 3-11 in league play with the loss as the Lady Gamecocks dropped their third straight contest to the Lady Tigers.
“This is a nice way to wrap up the regular season,” LSU coach Sue Gunter said. “Obviously there were times that we did not look to good, but there were times we looked very good. “I thought our ability to defend and get into transition was the difference. It seemed like in the second half, we finally got a little energy and got things going. One thing we did was that we converted off their turnovers.”
For the game, South Carolina turned the ball over 34 times which led to 35 LSU points. LSU only turned the ball over 15 times.
“Our intensity wasn’t there today,” South Carolina coach Susan Walvius said. “I thought Katrina Hibbert and Marie Ferdinand did a great job. We knew that they were good and we were focusing on them defensively although you couldn’t tell that from their statistics.”
Ferdinand scored 20 points on 10-of-20 shooting for the Lady Tigers. She also added four rebounds, six assists and five steals in 40 minutes of action.
DeTrina White rounded out the double-figure scoring for the Lady Tigers with 15 points. LSU jumped on the Lady Gamecocks early in the contest as the Lady Tigers used an 8-0 run in the opening minutes to take a 12-4 lead on a layup by White at the 16:39 mark.
South Carolina got to within 22-19 on a 3-pointer by Kelly Morrone at the 7:55 mark. LSU responded with a 13-2 run over the next four minutes to take its biggest lead, 35-21, on a Ferdinand layup at the 3:58 mark. LSU led 37-27 at halftime.
In the second half, South Carolina made a run at LSU as the Lady Gamecocks, behind the play of Annie Lester, sliced the deficit to 46-42 on a 3-pointer by Ines Ajanovic at the 13:51 mark.
LSU lead stayed between six and eight points for the next four minutes before the Lady Tigers used a 11-2 run, capped on a 3-pointer by Hibbert, to stretch the lead to 63-48 with 7:14 to go. LSU’s lead never dipped under double-figures the rest of the way as the Lady Tigers cruised to the win.
For the game, South Carolina hit 53.3 percent from the field to become the first team this year to shoot 50 percent or better against the Lady Tigers. LSU, the top field goal shooting team in the SEC, hit on 31-of-64 shots for 48.4 percent.
The Lady Tigers return to action on Friday at the SEC Tournament. LSU receives a first round bye and will face the winner of Vanderbilt and South Carolina at 8:30 p.m. CT on Friday.