MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The fifth-seeded LSU women’s basketball team earned its first Southeastern Confernece Tournament victory in five years, 72-57, over the No. 12 seed Kentucky Wildcats on Thursday night in the first round held in The Pyramid in Memphis, Tenn.
“It is nice to finally get the monkey off of our back as far as the SEC Tournament is concerned,” said LSU coach Sue Gunter. “We should be able to build on this and have a good week here.”
LSU advanced to play No. 4-seeded Vanderbilt at 6 p.m. on Friday night in the second round of the tournament. LSU lost to Vanderbilt by 11 in Nashville two weeks ago.
“The Vanderbilt game is huge for us,” said Gunter. “We still feel like we are in a position to host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, but we need another win.”
The Lady Tigers (19-9), whose record against Kentucky in tournament play moved to 4-2, overcame a lackluster first 10 minutes of the game to shoot 29-of-50 from the field (58.0 percent), while holding Kentucky to only 23-of-56 shooting (41.1 percent). Kentucky’s season ended with a 6-21 record.
LSU was led in scoring in the half by Marie Ferdinand who had 21 on 9-of-15 shooting. April Brown and Roneeka Hodges each had 12. Ke-Ke Tardy and DeTrina White added 10 and eight, respectively, for the Lady Tigers.
“Marie did it again for us,” Gunter said of the All-America candidate. “She did a great job of being patient and taking what the defense could give her. She just owned the baseline tonight.”
Kentucky was led by Latonya McDole who scored 18 points.
LSU increased its 11-point halftime lead to 17, 48-31, on a 16-footer by Roneeka Hodges. However, Kentucky rolled off seven straight points to cut into the LSU lead, 48-38, with 12:46 remaining in the game.
A Tardy layup with 6:48 remaining increased the lead to 62-47. The Lady Tigers would go up by as many as 19 at the 3:04 mark, 68-49.
In the first half, after making only four of its first 12 shots and falling behind 11-8, LSU scored seven straight points to pull ahead 15-11 at the 9:34 mark.
Ferdinand and Roneeka Hodges scored all seven points in the stretch, including a sequence when Hodges blocked a Wildcat shot, corralled the rebound, threw an outlet pass to Kisha James who hit Ferdinand cutting on the fast break for a three-point play.
The Lady Tigers extended the lead to seven, 20-13, with 7:32 remaining in the half when Doneeka Hodges hit a three-pointer from the right wing.
Just as it did for most of its first-half buckets, the Lady Tigers found a baseline cut wide open on back-to-back possessions to go ahead, 26-15. A pair of Brown layups gave LSU its largest lead of the half, 32-19, with 2:45 left.
LSU led at halftime, 34-23.
Earlier in the day, No. 8 seed Alabama defeated No. 9 Auburn, 59-55, before No. 7 Arkansas beat No. 10 Mississippi State, 94-75. No. 6 South Carolina was upset by No. 11 Ole Miss in the nightcap.
Alabama faces No. 1 seed Tennessee in the second round, while Arkansas takes on No. 2 seed Florida. Ole Miss will face No. 2-seeded Georgia in the second round.