BATON ROUGE — Second-ranked LSU tied a school record for the best start to a season at 14-0 as the Lady Tigers limited Ole Miss to just 32.8 percent field goal shooting and forced the Lady Rebels into 19 turnovers as the Lady Tigers pulled away to a 71-54 Southeastern Conference victory on Sunday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
LSU (14-0, 2-0) has now won their past five outings and eight of nine against Ole Miss (11-3, 1-1). Prior to the current stretch, the Lady Rebels had won seven in a row and eight of nine.
LSU freshman sensation Seimone Augustus led all scorers with 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field and a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line. Ke Ke Tardy came off the Lady Tiger bench to add 10 points as all 10 LSU players who got into the game also scored.
The Lady Tigers looked to extend their six-point halftime lead, but could not pull away from the Lady Rebels until six unanswered points in a stretch of 3:04 extended the lead to 48-38 with 11:59 to go on a layup by Crystal White.
That lead would quickly mushroom to 14 at 57-43 as the Lady Tigers shot 59.1 percent from the floor in the second half. A three-point play by Augustus with 3:59 to go gave LSU its largest lead of the game at 65-47.
LSU went scoreless in the game’s first 3:27, as the Lady Tigers missed their first four shots and turned the ball over, but Ole Miss could only get an Amber Watts layup in that same stretch. DeTrina White’s three-point play at the 16:33 mark of the half finally got LSU on the board in the lead at 3-2.
LSU scored the next four points on layups by White and Temeka Johnson to grab a 7-2 lead, but Ole Miss then went on a 7-0 run in a 1:41 span, pulling into a 9-7 lead on Genice Terry’s 3-pointer.
LSU briefly regained the lead on Augustus’ 3-point play, but Ole Miss scored five unanswered points to take its largest first half lead at 14-10 on a Carletta Brown 3-pointer.
True to form in the first half, the lead wouldn’t last, with LSU using a 10-1 spurt in a three-minute stretch to grab a 20-15 lead on Wendlyn Jones’ layup, and the lead would eventually grow to as large as seven at 26-19 when Doneeka Hodges hit running jumper with 5:58 left in the first half.
Ole Miss got to within three twice more in the period, but the Lady Tigers went to the dressing room ahead 33-27 when Kisha James hit a 30-foot shot with time winding down in the first half.
Brown led the Lady Rebels with 18 points off the bench, while Amber Watts scored 12 despite missing large chunks of action due to foul trouble.
The victory was the 399th career triumph for Sue Gunter as the Lady Tigers’ coach. Gunter’s 665 career victories at LSU and Stephen F. Austin place her third on the NCAA career list behind Tennessee’s Pat Summitt and Texas’ Jody Conradt.
LSU returns to action on Thursday when the Lady Tigers host Kentucky at 7 p.m. Not only will the Lady Tigers be going for the best start in school history, but they can also go to 3-0 in the SEC for the third time in school history while also helping Gunter win her 400th game at LSU.