BATON ROUGE — The LSU women’s basketball team came from 11 points down to outscore Auburn by 25 points over the final 20:01 and win, 76-62, at the Maravich Assembly Center on Thursday night.
Doneeka Hodges hit four three pointers in the first 10 minutes of second half to pace the comeback. The sophomore finished with 21 points on 8-of-16 shooting including 4-of-10 from long range. Aiysha Smith added 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting, while Ke-Ke Tardy had 13 points and Temeka Johnson had 12 points, 13 assists and seven rebounds.
LSU shot 45.8 percent from the field (27 of 59), while Auburn shot 41.3 percent (26 of 63). The Auburn Tigers were only 10 of 32 for 31.3 percent in the second half. LSU shot better than 53 percent in the final 20 minutes.
Auburn was led by Le’Coe Willingham who had 14 points, but only four after the break. Nicole Louden and Lakeisha Johnson each added 11 for the Tigers.
Although LSU only made 69 percent of its free throws, the Lady Tigers outscored Auburn at the line, 18-6.
Coming out on a tear offensively, LSU opened a 21-13 lead in the first eight minutes of the game while making 10-of-14 shots from the field with three of those misses from three-point range. Smith made all of her first four shots to lead the Lady Tigers with nine points, while Johnson had six assists from the point.
Against the Auburn zone defense, LSU made only one of its next nine shots as Auburn elimated the lead, 24-24, with 6:01 remaining in the half. The Auburn Tigers took their first lead, 28-26, on a layup by Le’Coe Willingham at the 4:01 mark, and then continued the 19-2 run with two more baskets in the lane. Auburn made 8-of-9 during the stretch.
LSU trailed 34-26 with 2:05 left in the half after failing to score over the final 5:16 in the first half before hitting a second-chance layup as the clock expired. Auburn led by nine, 37-28, at the half.
The LSU Lady Tigers started the second half by making 4-of-6 shots including two three pointers by Doneeka Hodges to cut the lead to five, 43-38, with 16:04 remaining. A pair of Tardy free throws narrowed the gap to three going into the first media timeout of the second half.
A basket by Johnson moved LSU within two, 47-45, before Doneeka Hodges’ third trey with 12:45 remaining in the game gave LSU its first lead since the four-minute mark of the first half, 48-47. Two Smith free throws put LSU up two, 54-52, before Auburn’s Louden responded with back-to-back baskets including a three pointer.
LSU took a four-point lead, 61-57, on five-straight free throws by Johnson with under six minutes remaining in the game, and then upped the lead to six, 63-57, on a fast-break layup by Doneeka Hodges with 3:48 left to play.
At the 3:00 mark, Louden hit her second three pointer in as many attempts to cut the lead to three, but Smith answered on the other end with a layup to maintain a five-point lead, 65-50.
The teams traded baskets until the LSU took over with 1:03 to play. Scholanda Dorrell hit a leaning five-footer before Johnson stole the ball and drove the length of the court for a three-point play to seal the win, 72-62, with 56.2 seconds to play.
LSU make 5-of-6 shots down the stretch for the comeback win.