BATON ROUGE — In Sue Gunter‘s 600th game as a Lady Tigers’ head coach, her second-ranked LSU women’s basketball team held Alabama State to 7-of-53 shooting and tied the lowest points allowed in NCAA women’s basketball history in a 65-19 victory over the Hornets on Saturday evening in the Maravich Assembly Center.
The 19 points allowed by the Lady Tigers were a school-record and tied the NCAA record set on March 3, 1983, when Prairie View A&M scored 19 against Jackson State. The previous school record for fewest points allowed in a game was set last season in a 68-26 victory over Prairie View on Dec. 22, 2001.
The Lady Tigers also set a school record for fewest field goals allowed, besting a mark of nine set against Nicholls State in 1994. The LSU school record for field goal percentage defense also fell, as Nicholls State shot 15.2 percent in the same 1994 game while Alabama State was held to 13.2 percent this evening.
Gunter, who improved to 391-209 (.652) in 21 seasons in Baton Rouge, watched her Lady Tigers improve to 6-0 on the season going into a 10-day break for final exams.
LSU overcame a cold shooting first half (11 of 29) to finish the game 25-of-55 from the field (45.5 percent) and 11-of-13 (84.6 percent) from the free throw line. The Lady Tigers added four three-pointers in nine tries.
“It was not the kind of night that we had hoped it would be,” Gunter said. “I thought we were very lethargic. We did not attack the zone and we did not shoot the ball very well. The players have finals coming up and they have been on the road so I guess I should not complain and I should just be glad that we won the game.”
Center Aiysha Smith and reserve point guard Kisha James led LSU with 11 points each, while Ke-Ke Tardy added 10 points. No Lady Tiger played more than 27 minutes in the contest. James dished a game-high seven assists.
Tawana Harris and Vicki Pouncey each scored four points to lead Alabama State.
Two Hornets scored three points in the first half to lead the team, Vicki Pouncey and Chrishutta Lewis.
After Aiysha Smith scored a layup eight seconds into the game, both teams went scoreless until the 14:57 mark when Alabama State’s Shameka tied the game at 2-2. During the five-minute span, the teams missed 12 straight shots and turned the ball over four times.
With a pair of three-pointers by Roneeka Hodges and a short jumper by Smith, LSU pulled out to a 10-2 lead nearly nine minutes into the half. As both teams continued to struggle from the field, Lewis cut then LSU lead to four, 12-8, by sinking a three-pointer from the left baseline with 7:43 to play in the half.
A conventional three-point play by White and a layup by Smith started a 13-2 run by the Lady Tigers to end the half, giving LSU a 25-10 lead. Augustus scored her first points of the evening more than 15 minutes into the contest, a 10-foot jump shot that rattled home to give the Lady Tigers a 19-8 lead.
As Alabama State made only 2-of-18 shots to start the half, the Lady Tigers went on a 25-2 run midway through the second half to open a 41-point lead, 56-15, with five minutes to play in the game.
The Lady Tigers will have a 10-day break in action before returning from final exams to face Ohio University in the first game of the www.womenscollegehoops.com Classic to beheld at the Maravich Assembly Center from Dec. 18-19.