BATON ROUGE — In front of the second-largest crowd in LSU women’s basketball history — 8,153 fans — the Lady Tigers struggled to match up with a much taller and deeper Vanderbilt team, as the No. 5 Commodores held on to defeat LSU, 64-53, on Sunday in the sixth-annual Pack the PMAC.
On 24-of-35 shooting, Chantelle Anderson and Zuzi Klimesova scored 28 and 24, respectively, to outscore LSU (11-7, 4-3 SEC) by themselves. The Commodores came off an 11-point loss at home to Florida to improve to 19-4 including 5-2 in league play.
The Lady Tigers were led by Aiysha Smith, who scored 16. Temeka Johnson had 11 and Ke-Ke Tardy added 12.
Other than Vanderbilt’s duo in the post, no Commodore scored more than four points nor attempted more than five shots. Vanderbilt attempted only two free throws, making both. However, LSU missed 8-of-11 free throws attempted.
After having the game tied at 2-2, Anderson and Klimesova led Vanderbilt to nine straight point under the basket for an 11-2 lead with 16 minutes to play in the half.
LSU missed five of its first six shots from the field before making 2-of-3 to keep the game in check early, 15-6, at the first media timeout.
Vanderbilt continued to throw over the top of the LSU defense and into its much taller post players, while LSU failed to convert on layups while committing five turnovers in the first eight-plus minutes. Anderson and Klimesova combined to make 8-of-11 from the field and score 16 of the Commodores’ first 19 points as Vanderbilt led 19-6 at the second media timeout with 11:19 to play in the half.
The Lady Tigers’ problems containing the post did not change over the next four minutes, as the Vanderbilt duo scored another four points before the 7:55 timeout to take a 23-6 lead.
LSU broke an 8-0 Vanderbilt run by scoring its first basket in 6:40, a runner by Roneeka Hodges in the lane with time running off the shot clock. Another high bank shot by Johnson over Anderson capped an LSU 6-0 run as Vanderbilt cooled from the field. LSU trailed 23-12 with just under five minutes remaining in the half.
An 8-2 Vanderbilt run over the next three minutes extended the lead to 31-14 before Scholanda Dorrell rattled home a short jumper from the left baseline.
Smith made three layups under the LSU basket to get within 12 before the half, 34-22.
At halftime, John Pinegar of Baton Rouge successfully made a paper airplane into a hole in the sunroof of the 2002 Mitsubishi Eclipse to win the vehicle. It marked the second time in six Pack the PMAC’s that a lucky fan walked away with a vehicle.
To open the second half, Vanderbilt again went back to the strategy that gave them a commanding first-half lead. The unstoppable duo scored eight of the Commodores’ first 10 points in the half to lead 44-26 with 13:25 left to play.
With 8:51 to play, Vanderbilt increased the lead to 20, 52-32, when Ashley McElhiney knifed through the LSU defense and dished to Klimesova for an easy layup as the shot clock ran down.
LSU got within 14, 56-42, with a pair of three pointers by Dorrell and Doneeka Hodges and a put-back layup by Smith as the clock wound down under four minutes.
With a 9-0 run, The Lady Tigers got within nine, 60-51, with under a minute to play.
The Lady Tigers return to action one week from today when they take on Ole Miss on Feb. 3 at 2 p.m. in Baton Rouge.