BATON ROUGE — Michelle Snow took an in-bounds pass from Semeka Randall with 1.1 seconds left and hit a turn around jumper to steal a 75-73 for No. 2 Tennessee over No. 11 LSU from on senior day at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Sunday afternoon.
Kara Lawson had missed an off-balance jumper that would have won the game with three seconds left.. Her rebound went out of bounds to Tennessee setting up Snow’s jumper.
“We defended that play about as well as we could have. Michelle just hit a tough shot,” said LSU head coach Sue Gunter. “We had DeTrina (White) and Ke-Ke (Tardy) leaning on her. She just hit a tough shot.”
The loss dropped LSU to 17-8 on the year and 7-5 in the Southeastern Conference. Tennessee improved to 26-1 and 12-0 in the conference.
April Brown, who finished with a game-high 21 points, hit a short jumper to cut the lead to one and then Tardy knocked down a free throw that tied the game 73-73 with 56 seconds to play. After a Snow miss, Marie Ferdinand was fouled on the rebound.
Ferdinand was hit on the way down and forced out of the game. Roneeka Hodges came in to shoot the free throws, both of which she missed. LSU finished the game just 13-of-27 from the line. Ferdinand scored 17 points in the game, including the 1,500th of her career.
“If there was one place in the basketball game where we lost, it was at the free throw line,” Gunter said. “I mean, we worked so hard to get to the free throw line, and that was part of what we wanted to do.”
Semeka Randall, who scored 14 points and added three assists and four steals, hit one of two free throws with 2:17 remaining in the game to give Tennessee a 73-70 lead heading down the stretch.
Gwen Jackson led Tennessee with 16 points.
LSU battled back from a five-point halftime deficit to tie the game 41-41 with 17:37 mark of the second half when White hit a free throw. White scored on the next possession to give LSU a 43-41 lead.
White helped the Lady Tigers negate Tennessee’s size advantage as she hauled in nine rebounds, including four offensive. The Lady Vols held a slight edge on the boards, 39-33.
April McDivitt hit a three-pointer with 12:57 left in the game to give Tennessee a 52-47 advantage, tying its largest lead of the game. LSU answered with five straight to tie the game when Kisha James slipped the ball between four Lady Vol defenders to find a cutting Doneeka Hodges to tie the game.
The teams traded baskets for the next four minutes with Tennessee constantly holding an advantage that never grew past five.
LSU finished the game with 20 assists to just 12 turnovers while Tennessee had only 11 assists and 18 turnovers. James had seven assists to lead all players.
“I think we pretty well did what we wanted to do as a team. Our whole thought going in was if we could get into the last four minutes and give ourselves a chance to win, we thought we could. And I think the only thing we didn’t do is win,” Gunter said.
Brown tied the game for LSU with 7:27 to play as she hit a 10-footer from the left baseline as the shot clock expired. Ashley Robinson answered on the next possession with two free throws to hand the lead back to the Lady Vols.
Brown scored two possessions later to give LSU its first lead of the half, 66-64. But Lawson replied with a three-pointer with 6:19 left. D. Hodges gave the Lady Tigers the lead back, 68-67 on the next possession.
Randall’s steal and basket capped an 11-2 Tennessee run that put the Lady Vols up 37-32 with 1:48 remaining in the first half. The run came after LSU’s Ferdinand went to the bench with two first-half fouls. Tennessee led 39-34 at halftime.
The teams matched baskets early as both offenses were clicking on all cylinders. Randall scored seven straight Tennessee points sandwiched around an Angelia Crockett basket to give Tennessee a 13-8 lead with 15:09 to play. Randall finished the half with 11 points.
Ferdinand answered with four consecutive points to cut the lead to one before Lawson knocked down a three-pointer with 13:27 remaining in the half to extend the lead back to four, 16-12.
Ferdinand found Tardy underneath to cap a 9-0 run and give LSU a 21-16 lead with 9:25 remaining in the first half. McDivitt ended the run with a 17-foot jumper from the left side.
After the Lady Vols cut the lead to one on a Jackson put back, Hodges hit a reverse lay up and was fouled by Snow to push the lead to 26-22 with 7:19 left.
White, who had seven first-half rebounds, finally got in the scoring column when she went up over the 6-5 Robinson in the paint to get the margin to 30-26.
Robinson converted a three-point play when she shot over Ke-Ke Tardy and was fouled to give the Lady Vols a 31-30 lead with 3:27 left in the half. LSU got on the board first when Ferdinand hit a cutting Tardy in the paint for an uncontested lay up.