BATON ROUGE — The LSU women’s basketball team shot 55 percent from the field in the second half and outscored No. 9 South Carolina 29-3 at the free throw line to upset the Lady Gamecocks, 72-62, on Sunday afternoon in the Maravich Assembly Center.
LSU (14-9, 7-5 SEC) picked up its seventh conference victory and assured at least .500 finish in the Southestern Conference. South Carolina lost for the first time since Jan. 27 (74-46 at Arkansas) and fell to 21-4 overall and 9-3 in conference play.
Aiysha Smith led four Lady Tigers in double figures with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Doneeka Hodges poured in 17, Scholanda Dorrell added 14 and Ke-Ke Tardy had 10. Point guard Temeka Johnson was effective all over the court, tallying nine points, nine assists and eight rebounds.
The Lady Tigers finished 29 of 39 from the free throw line (74.4 percent), while South Carolina was only 3-of-8. There were 26 USC fouls to only eight called on LSU.
LSU shot 46.7 percent from the field (21 of 45), while the Lady Gamecocks shot only 13 of 32 in the second half to finish at 42.9 percent.
South Carolina was led in scoring by Shaunzinski Gortman who had 18 points on 7-of-16 shooting. She was the only player in double figures for USC.
After falling behind 6-2, LSU went on a 6-0 run to take its first lead with less than 15 minutes left in the first half for an 8-6 advantage. However, South Carolina matched the Lady Tigers’ run with an 8-0 stint of its own to re-take the lead, 14-8, with 11:35 remaining.
LSU cut the lead to one, 17-16, on a layup by Doneeka Hodges who was left alone under the basket with 8:41 on the clock.
Shooting only 6-of-19 from the field start the game (31.6 percent), the Lady Tigers were able to stay close by making all six of their free throws over the first 13 minutes of the game. At the 6:53 media timeout, LSU trailed 21-18 as South Carolina was 10-of-19 from the field.
After LSU tied the game at 21-21 with 5:45 left in the half, the Lady Tigers made only 2-of-4 from the line to take a 23-21 lead. The lead changed hands again before Tardy hit a 16-footer and a turn around jumper to put the Lady Tigers up 29-27 with 2:18 to play in the half.
LSU led 33-32 at halftime after outscoring the Lady Gamecocks 13-1 at the free throw line.
The Lady Tigers raced out to an eight-point lead to start the second half, 48-40, with 14:14 left in the game. However, LSU yielded six straight points going into the 11:44 media timeout and led by two.
South Carolina and LSU were tied five times, the last at 60-60 with 2:35 remaining in the game, as each team stayed within three points over the last 14 minutes of the game.
LSU tried to pull away late, as Tardy’s 16-footer from the middle of the key put LSU up by four, 64-60, with 1:13 remaining in the game. After South Carolina missed two free throws, Dorrell converted on two on the other end to go up six. Dorrell then came down the another rebound on the defensive end and converted on two more from the charity stripe for a 68-60 lead.
South Carolina scored a quick layup and called a timeout with 45.1 seconds remaining.