BATON ROUGE — LSU’s 18th-ranked Lady Tigers jumped out to an early lead an maintained the lead throughout the entire game enroute to a 78-68 victory over No. 22 Rutgers on Tuesday night in LSU’s home opener in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
LSU (3-2), which had started slow in each of its previous four games, rolled out to a 7-0 lead in the first three minutes of the game and led 16-4 10 minutes into the first half. Rutgers (3-3), losers of three straight games, all on the road, did manage to cut the lead to 31-24 at the break.
The Scarlet Knights then got as close as 33-30 early in the second half before the Lady Tigers used a 7-0 run to pull away again and Rutgers never got closer than six the rest of the night as LSU grabbed as much as a 15-point lead, 65-50 with 6:19 to play.
“It was a much needed win against a quality opponent,” LSU head coach Sue Gunter said. “I though we had a good game plan and for the first time this year our team went out and executed it. One of the things we thought we could do was run on them and I think we jump out early and got so transition baskets and consequently got a big lead.”
LSU collected 12 fast break points for the game, including six in the first half.
Senior guard Doneeka Hodges, who began the game 1-8 shooting, hit seven of 10 in the second half from the floor, including three from three-point land to lead LSU with 23 points, while sophomore Seimone Augustus added 19 points and eight rebounds and sophomore Tillie Willis posted a career night with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Treynell Clavelle came off the bench to added five points and a career-best eight rebounds.
Senior point guard Temeka Johnson had a solid effort as well, scoring six points and grabbing six rebounds and she dished out 13 assists, the most by the New Orleans native since she had a school-record 15 at Ole Miss on Jan. 17, 2002.
Cappie Pondexter led Rutgers with 18 points and eight rebounds, while Chelsea Newton added 12 points and Shalicia Hurns added 11 points and 10 rebounds.
LSU shot 47.5 percent from the floor and grabbed 43 rebounds, while Rutgers hit just 34.7 percent from the floor and grabbed 41 boards.