BATON ROUGE — With 18 points and 17 rebounds, Aiysha Smith led three Lady Tigers in double figures as the LSU women’s basketball team improved to 3-2 in Southeastern Conference play with a 65-55 victory over the Arkansas Lady’Backs on Sunday afternoon in the Maravich Assembly Center.
LSU also picked up its 10th victory of the season and improved to 10-6, while Arkansas fell to 10-7 overall and 1-4 in league play.
Smith made 6-of-13 shots from the field and was 6-of-7 from the free throw line, while point guard Temeka Johnson added 17 points and Scholanda Dorrell scored 12. With leading scorer Doneeka Hodges struggling from the field (2 of 12), the Lady Tigers were forced to send the ball inside and score in the paint. Dorrell’s three three-pointers late in the first half were LSU’s only outside offense in the game.
Arkansas was led by India Lewis who had 16 points.
LSU used its only inside presence early, as Smith scored six points and grabbed five rebounds in the first six minutes of the game to give the Lady Tigers a 10-6 lead.
At the 11:47 media timeout, the Lady’Backs had made only 4-of-16 shots (25.0 percent) while the Lady Tigers were 6-of-15 for 40 percent. LSU led 14-9.
Arkansas then put together a 4-0 run over the next 2:35 to cut the lead to one, 14-13, before Roneeka Hodges was fouled on a third-chance attempt under the Lady Tigers’ basket. She made 1-of-2 and LSU led by two.
After Arkansas missed on three opportunities on their end, Patty Hanten hit a wide open trey to up the lead to 18-13 with 8:29 left in the first half. Scholanda Dorrell then came off the bench and a one-game suspension to score her first points of the game off a steal.
The Lady’Backs again came back with a 10-5 run to eliminate the Lady Tigers’ lead, 23-23. However, LSU ended the half scoring eight of the final 11 points to take a 31-26 lead going into the lockerroom.
To begin the second half, LSU again relied on Smith under the basket to score and rebounds, as the junior college All-American scored six points and grabbed four rebounds in the first six minutes of the second half as well.
The Lady Tigers kept the Lady’Backs at bay over the next five minutes, while holding onto a 12-point lead, 54-42, with 8:55 remaining.
Slowly, Arkansas was able to cut the lead to seven, 54-47, on second chance points under the basket with 6:32 left to play and then to four on a layup with 4:48 left.
Johnson responded with a three-point play to get the lead back to seven at the final media timeout at the 3:30 mark.
With 1:39 to play, Arkansas’ Amy Wright hit a three pointer from the left wing to cut the lead to 60-55. The Lady’Backs forced a poor shot by Dorrell and got the rebounds, but turned the ball over in the back court. Johnson’s pull-up jumper from 15 feet sealed the victory for LSU with less than a minute to play.