BATON ROUGE — After defeating then-No. 3 Tennessee and advancing to the SEC Tournament championship game for the first time since 1991, the Lady Tiger basketball team returned to the national rankings at No. 22 in the Associated Press poll and No. 23 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll.
With a pair of wins in the SEC Tournament, LSU (17-11) all but guaranteed itself of a berth in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth straight season. The pairings will be announced this Sunday at 4 p.m. on ESPN with play beginning on March 15 and 16.
Entering the SEC Tournament as the fourth seed, the Lady Tigers earned a bye for the first round. In the second round they defeated No. 12 seed Kentucky, 74-62, after the Lady Wildcats upset Mississippi State in the first round.
In the semifinals, LSU shocked SEC regular-season champion Tennessee, 81-80, on 25-of-29 shooting from the free throw line. Sophomore Temeka Johnson hit a free throw with 4.5 seconds remaining to give LSU the win.
Against Vanderbilt in the championship game, LSU rallied from an early 12-2 deficit to trail by just two at halftime. In the second half, the Lady Tigers became the first team in the tournament to take a lead on the Commodores, 38-37, with 12:17 remaining, but Vanderbilt outscored LSU 26-10 the remainder of the game.
Johnson was named to the SEC All-Tournament team after averaging 17.7 points, 6.3 assists and 4 rebounds in LSU’s three games. She also was the only Lady Tiger to play every minute in all three games in three consecutive days.
Against Tennessee she set LSU records for free throws, free throw attempts and assists in SEC Tournament play by going 12-for-15 from the line with 10 assists. She followed that up with a career-high 22 points against Vanderbilt.