NASHVILLE, Tenn. — In a tournament that only one of the favored teams stayed alive in the first six games, the fourth-seeded Lady Tigers answered everything the Cinderella 12th-seeded Kentucky Wildcats had to offer down the stretch to advance to play No. 1 seed Tennessee, 74-62, in the second round of the 2002 Southeastern Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament.
LSU (16-10, 8-6 SEC) earned a much-needed tournament victory that should assure the Lady Tigers a spot in the 64-team NCAA Tournament that begins March 15. Kentucky, which had lost 13-straight games before upsetting No. 5-seed Mississippi State in Thursday night’s first round, ended its season at 9-20. The lowest seed in the tournament, which has won five games all-time, has never advanced to the semifinals in 20 years of women’s SEC Tournament play.
The Lady Tiger will play SEC regular-season champion Tennessee (25-3, 13-1 SEC) in the semifinal at 6 p.m. CST on Saturday at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville, home to the NHL’s Nashville Predators.
Paced by First-Team All-SEC member Aiysha Smith’s eighth double-double performance of the season (18 points, 13 rebounds), the Lady Tigers opened a nine-point halftime lead that dwindled to five in the last three minutes of the game, 66-61. LSU went on an 8-1 run in the final 2:20 to give the Lady Tigers a victory that was closer than the 12 points on the scoreboard.
Five Lady Tigers finished in double figures, including Doneeka Hodges (15), Temeka Johnson (13), Scholanda Dorrell (11) and Ke-Ke Tardy (10). All played key roles in the Lady Tigers’ success, as LSU used only six of its seven players who dressed for the contest. With eight assists, Johnson moved into seventh place on LSU’s single-season assist list with 154 in only 19 games (7.7 per game, third in the nation). With two games at the least remaining in the season, she has a good chance to move into second place (170 by Marie Ferdinand in 1999-2000) at the end of her sophomore season.
LSU improved to 16-1 when out-shooting its opponent, as the Lady Tigers were 29 of 60 for 48.3 percent while Kentucky was only 26 of 61 for 42.6 percent. LSU also improved to 14-1 when leading at the half.
After a 72-57 first-round victory last season over Kentucky in Memphis, LSU won SEC Tournament games in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1989-91.
Kentucky was led by four players in double figures, as Second-Team All-SEC Center Selia Helm and Rita Adams had 14, while Sara Potts added 11 and Shambrica Jones had 10. The Wildcats were outrebounded, 41-27.
Smith scored six of LSU’s first nine points, including an 18-foot jumper from the right wing to take a 9-8 lead headed into the 15:14 media timeout.
The Lady Tigers went without a field goal for 5:07 and fell behind 14-13 with 9:43 to play in the first half. Johnson, the shortest player on the court at 5-2, drove the lane against four Wildcat defenders for a layup to start a 9-2 run that was capped by a three-point play by Doneeka Hodges. LSU led by six, 22-16
The lead increased to as much as eight, 26-18, before Adams hit a pull-up three-pointer with the shot clock at zero to start a 5-0 run by the Wildcats going into the 3:10 media timeout.
Smith and Helm traded layups in the post before Johnson took a rebound and went coast-to-coast for a tough layup and a 30-25 lead. A pair of Doneeka Hodges free throws coupled with a layup off a Kentucky missed basket with less than four seconds on the clock gave the Lady Tigers a 34-25 halftime lead.
In a sloppy first half, the teams combined for 19 turnovers and 1-of-11 three-point shooting. LSU outrebounded the Wildcats, 24-15, and had three key blocked shots early.
LSU took the momentum it gained at the end of the first half into the second half, as it opened a 14-point lead, 41-27, on a Johnson layup at the 15-minute mark.
Kentucky cut the lead to eight on a three-pointer by Potts, and then to five, 58-53, on a three-point play by Potts and a layup by Helm with 5:30 left to play. However, LSU responded with an 8-4 run to take a 66-57 lead at the 3:34 media timeout.
LSU continued to answer the Wildcats basket for basket down the stretch, as Doneeka Hodges, Tardy and Smith all scored key baskets in the game’s waning moments.