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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The Lady Tigers battled back from 11 down in the second half, but could not hold on to the lead as the Arkansas Lady’Backs went on to defeat LSU, 80-71, on the road in Bud Walton Arena on Sunday afternoon.
The Lady Tigers fall to 13-8 overall and 6-4 in the SEC, while Arkansas improves to 14-9 overall and 5-6 in the SEC. LSU travels to Nashville to face No. 6 Vanderbilt on Thursday at 7 p.m. CST. The game will be televised on SEC-TV.
After trailing by as many as 11 with nine minutes remaining in the game, LSU battled back to take its first lead of the second half with five minutes remaining.
With the game tied at 71 with 3:33 remaining, Arkansas took the lead for good on a free throw by Shameka Christon at the 2:38 mark. Two turnovers by the Lady Tigers and two missed rebound opportunities on missed free throws by Arkansas allowed the Lady’Backs to hold on for the win.
“Give credit to Arkansas for playing well,” said LSU head coach Sue Gunter. “Our inability to block our on free throws and turnovers on back-to-back trips down the court took away scoring opportunities and essentially sealed our fate in the last two or three minutes of the game.”
“I am pleased that our players never gave up when we were down late in the game,” Gunter continued. “We were in a position to have a chance to win in the end and just didn’t take advantage of that opportunity.”
Junior Aiysha Smith led four Lady Tigers in double-figures scoring with 19 points, 14 of which she scored in the first half. Doneeka Hodges added 14 points, Scholanda Dorrell had 11 points off the bench and Ke-Ke Tardy had 10 points.
Sophomore Temeka Johnson had 13 assists for LSU, the fourth time this season she has recorded 13 or more assists.
Arkansas was led by Christon with 25 points, 23 of which came in the second half. Dana Cherry added 23 points for the Lady’Backs.
Both teams came out on fire from the field, each going 5-for-5 to start the game. The difference in the 11-10 Lady Tiger lead was a three-pointer by Doneeka Hodges.
The first missed field goal came at the 15:50-mark when Smith missed a three-pointer from the right baseline, only her seventh three-point attempt of the season.
The teams cooled off from the field, going just 7-of-17 over the next five minutes as Arkansas took an 18-17 lead into the second media timeout with 11:15 remaining.
The lead exchanged hands six times over the next six minutes before Arkansas’ India Lewis scored five-straight points to give the Lady’Backs their largest lead of the game, 32-38, with 4:45 remaining.
Arkansas extended the lead to eight points, 40-32, on a 12-foot jumper by Amy Wright a the 2:12-mark.
After an LSU timeout, the Lady Tigers immediately cut the lead to just one, 40-39, on a pair of layups by Smith and a three-pointer by Roneeka Hodges from the left wing.
The was how the score remained at halftime.
Arkansas came out hot to start the second half, rattling off 10 points on 4-of-4 shooting, including a three-pointer by Harmon, to take a 50-43 lead.
LSU cut the lead to 50-47 with 16:10 remaining on a layup by Dorrell..
Christon took charge for Arkansas with 12 points as the Lady’Backs went on a 15-7 run to take their largest lead of the game, 65-54, at the 9:09 mark.
A 10-0 run by the Lady Tigers over the next 3:56, capped off by a layup by Dorrell, gave LSU its first lead of the second half, 68-67, with 5:13 remaining.
The lead went back and forth three times before the final media timeout at 3:33 with the score tied 71-71.
Christon broke the tie with a free throw and a turnaround jumper to give the Lady’Backs the 74-71 lead with 1:56 remaining.
Arkansas scored the final nine points of the game, all but one on free throws.