TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The Alabama Crimson Tide’s Beth Vice and Katie Sipe combined for 12 three-point field goals and that duo proved to be too much for the LSU Lady Tigers to overcome Sunday afternoon at Coleman Coliseum as the Tide downed LSU, 82-73.
The loss closed the regular season for the Lady Tigers with a 15-10 record and an 8-6 SEC mark, while Alabama helped its NCAA chances by finishing at 7-7 and 17-10 overall.
LSU’s next action will be in the Southeastern Conference women’s tournament, set to begin Thursday at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville. The Tigers, thanks to Mississippi State’s win over Florida on Sunday, finish in a tie for fourth with the Bulldogs and will pick up the fourth seed and a first-round bye because of LSU’s win earlier this week over State.
The Tigers will play the opening game of the night session Friday at 6 p.m. CST against the winner of a Thursday night game involving fifth seed Mississippi State and 12th seed Kentucky. That game will be broadcast in
Baton Rouge on the LSU Sports Network (107.3 FM in Baton Rouge) and on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net. That game will be televised by Fox Sports South and SEC-TV.
There was no announcement late Sunday as to whether Fox Sports Southwest would carry the game in the Baton Rouge area.
LSU was led by Temeka Johnson with 19 points and seven assists as she played all 40 minutes. Aiysha Smith added 18 points (13 rebounds), with Doneeka Hodges getting 11 and Ke-Ke Tardy 10. Hodges, one of LSU’s main three-point friends, struggled outside the arc, hitting just one of nine attempts. The Tide got 21 points on Katie Sipe’s seven-of-nine three-point shooting, while Beth Vice’s five treys paced her 19 point effort. LaNisha Cartwell added 14 points and Shondra Johnson 10.
The Lady Tigers hung with Alabama throughout the first half, going from a 12-7 lead with 15:10 to go in the opening half to as much as an eight point deficit, 31-23, on back-to-back Sipe treys. But LSU then proceeded to go on a 10-2 run to tie the game at 33-33 with 2:52 to go in the half. Late in the half, Vice would hit back-to-back three-pointers for the Tide, but Johnson hit a desperation shot from near half-court at the buzzer to cut the Alabama halftime lead to just one, 41-40.
But it was a half that had LSU Coach Sue Gunter worried as the points mounted.
“I don’t think we were really ready to play,” said Gunter afterwards. “I was disappointed in our overall attitude. It’s not that we didn’t know those two could hit threes. It’s not that wasn’t part of our game plan. We just couldn’t get out and get on them and that was the ball game. We were lethargic on defense. We go in at halftime and we’re down one, but we’ve given up 40 points. We can’t beat people giving up forty in a half.”
Gunter felt the first five minutes of the second half would be a big key in this game and to Alabama it proved to be, as Vice and Sipe came out of the dressing room, each hitting three and then Cartwell scored to put the Tide up, 49-40, 2:30 into the half. But the time the half was six minutes old, LSU found itself needing to rally from an 11-point margin.
LSU got the game workable, hovering in the five-to-seven point range for several minutes, and eventually cut the game to three, 61-58, on two Doneeka Hodges free throws with 7:15 to play.
But again, Vice hit a trey, Johnson a layup and Sipe a three and the margin was again 11, 69-58, with just six minutes to go.
“I thought we tried hard to bring it back the second half, but it just wasn’t there,” said Gunter. “We just had some mental lapses. I’ve got to give Alabama credit, it was a tremendously important game to them. But I don’t our kids understand where we are and how badly we need to win. Now we’ve got to go into the SEC Tournament and beat teams that we’ve already played to get enough wins to qualify for the tournament.”
“It was an outstanding win for our team,” said Alabama Coach Rick Moody. “If we wanted a chance to go to the postseason, we needed to win today. Anytime you look at our box score, there are a couple of numbers that determine the game. The balance in scoring was a big number, with four people in double digits.”