BATON ROUGE — The No. 11 LSU Lady Tigers had no problem extending its non-conference winning streak to 54 Tuesday night with an 85-48 win over UL-Lafayette in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Senior April Brown became the 20th player in LSU history to reach the 1,000 point plateau. She is now one of only 11 players in Lady Tiger history to have at least 1,000 points and 500 rebounds in her career.
Marie Ferdinand led all scorers and finished the evening with 21 points, seven boards and four steals in 28 minutes of work. The senior was an impressive 9-of-18 from the floor and 3-of-4 from the free throw line.
The Lady Tigers added a pair of season highs in rebounding and steals. LSU combined to pull down 49 boards topping the two prior marks of 47 set against Prarie View and Delaware State. The Lady Tigers’ 18 steals was also one better than the previous season-high set against Kentucky.
LSU fell one shy of the season-high assist mark with 26 and four of the five Lady Tiger starters scored in double-figures.
Sophomore Ke-Ke Tardy registered the first double-double of her career with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
LSU (15-5) never trailed and enjoyed a double-digit lead for more than 34 minutes of the game. The Lady Tigers improve to 19-0 all-time against the Lady Cajuns, 13-0 in Baton Rouge.
The Lady Tigers opened with an 8-2 run and never looked back. It took UL-Lafayette 10:42 to reach double figures with a three point basket by Breanna Evans, 24-12. Evans led the Lady Cajuns with 19 points.
The Lady Cajuns (6-13) cut the LSU lead to seven on their next two possessions, but that was as close as the they would get.
LSU answered with a field goal by Ferdinand and two quick steals by Kisha James led to four points and sparked an 8-0 run giving the Lady Tigers a 32-17 lead.
By halftime, LSU had extended its lead to 17, the largest of the half, and took a 42-25 lead to the locker room.
The second half was a mirror image of the first as the Lady Tigers outscored UL-Lafayette 43-23 in the final 20 minutes of play.
With 18:29 left in the second quarter, Brown drilled a three-pointer to give her 1,001 points in her career. She finished the evening with 17 points in just 24 minutes of play.
LSU will look for its sixth SEC win on Sunday when the Lady Tigers host Auburn for the fifth annual Pack the PMAC. You can print your tickets for free on LSUsports.net.