BATON ROUGE — On the strength of a 15-1 run over a six-minute span, the second-ranked LSU women’s basketball team overcame a nine-point second-half deficit to overwhelm the 15th-ranked Texas Longhorns, 76-58, on Saturday afternoon in the Maravich Assembly Center.
The Lady Tigers (10-0), who trailed 45-36 with 14:11 to play, rallied behind the strength of forwards DeTrina White and Aiysha Smith to lead by as many as 20 before a layup by Texas’ forward Heather Schreiber in the final seconds.
Texas (6-3), which was coming off a last-second victory last Saturday against No. 4 Tennessee, 63-62, made only 9-of-27 shots in the second half. After leading 31-28 at the half, the Longhorns also committed nine turnovers in the final 20 minutes and struggled to run their offense against the full-court pressure applied by LSU in the half.
LSU committed 18 turnovers in the game, but only six in the second half.
The Lady Tigers finished 25-of-49 shooting (51.0 percent) and made 23-of-32 free throws (71.9 percent), 14 more than the Longhorns.
Smith led four Lady Tigers in double figures with 19 points on 9-of-13 shooting and seven rebounds. White, who had a game-high 12 rebounds, added 16 points including 12 in the second half. Doneeka Hodges made three three-pointers to tally 13 points and point guard Temeka Johnson added 10 points and seven assists.
Texas was led by Schreiber with 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting. Forward Kela Bowers was the only other Longhorn in double figures scoring with 11.
Smith, who led the Lady Tigers with 10 points in the first half, hit a jumper with 15:51 to play in the half to give LSU a 9-6 lead. However, Texas gained the lead with back-to-back layups by Schreiber and Stephens at the 14:42 mark.
The lead see-sawed for the next eight minutes until Texas went on a 6-0 run down to the 2:55 mark when Johnson hit one-of-two free throws to keep LSU within five, 28-23.
Doneeka Hodges hit a three-pointer from nearly 30 feet as the buzzer sounded to trim the Texas lead to 31-28 at the break.
In the second half, Texas scored the first four points to build a 37-28 lead. The lead dwindled to just two on a pair of free throws by White with 16:07 to play, however, it returned to nine with just more than 14 minutes to play.
LSU then went on its 15-1 run that was capped by three straight layups by White deep in the Longhorn lane. Leading by five, 51-46, the Lady Tigers smelled blood. Defensive pressure and transition offense led to a string of layups by Smith and Doneeka Hodges that put the lead into double figures with 4:43 to play, 62-52.
The relentless Lady Tigers used a 14-4 run in the final four minutes to run away with the victory.
LSU returns to action after the New Year when they travel to Denton Texas to take on North Texas on Jan. 2 at 7 p.m.
LSU vs. Texas
December 28, 2002
QUOTES FROM LSU HEAD COACH SUE GUNTER
“I just felt in the first half, we were trying to play more like Texas. They are better at playing their game than we are. I thought we didn’t execute from half court, took quick shots, didn’t get on the boards, turned it over too many times, but managed to hang in their. I think in a game like that when you are playing a quality opponent, you want to stay close and try to get to the dressing room so that you give yourself an opportunity to make some adjustments and try to come back out in the second half and get the job done.”
“I thought Kisha James came into the second half and really made something happen. Ke-Ke Tardy was very instrumental in getting us going today. This is the value of having a talented and deep bench. I think it was the difference in the ballgame. No doubt about it. We shot the ball much better and ran our offense. We did something that LSU teams are supposed to do and that’s get to the free throw line. We didn’t make them guard us in the first half. The second half we reduced the turnovers and got on the boards better. It’s a good win for us.”
LSU Player Quotes
FORWARD KE-KE TARDY
“I think the biggest difference was offensive execution. I think we didn’t execute well in the first half. Our emotion was not looking like it was supposed to. We were screening but we weren’t cutting as well. I think the offense gave us a spark in the second half, which is unusual because our defense usually sparks us. We had the confidence that we could play well. It was just a matter of getting the team all on one page.”
“It seemed like once we had the momentum it just stayed with us. Once we started to get our offense going everything started to happen. I have remembered last year’s loss to Texas for a year now. This game was totally personal for me.”
FORWARD DETRINA WHITE
“When things weren’t going well somebody stepped up today. We kept running the flow and pushing the ball and finally things came around. A good thing about our team is that one person might be wide open but we don’t take that shot. We get that extra pass in and get another person open that is closer to the basket.”