BATON ROUGE — Trailing by as many as seven points, the sixth-ranked LSU women’s basketball team went to full-court pressure to force 18th-ranked Vanderbilt into 25 turnovers that led to 27 Lady Tigers points and a 70-59 victory on Sunday in the Maravich Assembly Center.
The Lady Tigers (17-1, 5-1 SEC) beat the Commodores (12-6, 2-3 SEC) for the first time since a 58-50 win in Baton Rouge on Feb. 17, 2000, a total of seven meetings.
Down by four, 50-46, at the 10:34 media timeout, the Lady Tigers’ pressure forced Vanderbilt to miss 11 of 12 shots and commit five turnovers until making their final two layups of the game in the closing 1:02. Vanderbilt was shooting 60 percent from the field (21 of 35) before the defensive stalwart. The Commodores finished the game 24 of 49 (49 percent).
Led by freshman sparkplug Seimone Augustus’ 21 points on 10 of 17 shooting, the Lady Tigers shot 45.8 percent for the game (27 of 59), but made only 1 of 10 three-pointers. Vanderbilt missed all eight of their three-point attempts.
The Lady Tigers also made 15 of 18 free throws including 13 of 16 in the second half.
LSU point guard Temeka Johnson was the only other Lady Tiger in double figures, scoring 11 points and dishing a game-high six assists in 31 minutes of action. Doneeka Hodges added nine points, while both Aiysha Smith and Roneeka Hodges had eight.
With Smith and starting center Ke-Ke Tardy in foul trouble for most of the game, the Lady Tigers reserves outscored Vanderbilt’s bench 18-2. Only seven Commodores played in the contest.
Vanderbilt was led by Jenni Benningfield who had 19 points on 8-of-16 shooting. All-American 6-foot-6 center Chantelle Anderson added 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting, five rebounds, four assists and four blocked shots but committed five turnovers. Forward Tia Battle was the third Commodore in double figures scoring with 13 points in 37 minutes.
In the first half, Vanderbilt opened a 33-28 lead on the strength of Anderson’s 5-of-6 shooting and Benningfield’s 5-of-8 effort. The two combined to score 23 of the Commodores’ 33 points, as Vanderbilt shot 63.6 percent in the half and missed only eight shots.
The half featured 11 lead changes and five ties. Vanderbilt scored the last six points of the first 20 minutes, holding LSU scoreless for the last 2:38.
LSU worked its way to a 12-6 lead behind eight point by Augustus in the first seven minutes.
However, with Smith and Tardy on the bench with a pair of fouls each, Vanderbilt rallied with a 13-4 run capped by a Benningfield three-point play to lead 19-16 with 7:00 to play in the half.
Trailing 21-20, LSU’s Roneeka Hodges hit a jumper that started a string of eight lead changes.
After taking a week off, the Lady Tigers return to action on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. against Georgia.