BATON ROUGE — Seimone Augustus’ game-high 25 points and 11 rebounds led LSU’s 15th-ranked Lady Tigers basketball team to a 78-61 victory over Mississippi State in Southeastern Conference action on Sunday in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
LSU (21-5, 9-3 SEC) jumped out to a 10-0 lead, rebounding from Thursday’s loss at home to Vanderbilt. Mississippi State (12-13, 6-6 SEC) would never get any closer than seven points after that and trailed 42-21 at the break.
“We talk to these kids all the time about bouncing back and it was evident in the first half,” LSU acting head coach Pokey Chatman said. “We came out with a lot of energy.”
The Lady Bulldogs did manage to cut the deficit to 12 with just over seven minutes to play, but LSU hung on for the victory to move into sole possession of second place in the SEC.
Augustus led LSU with her second double double of the season and 11th 20-plus point game, while Temeka Johnson added 18 points and six assists, becoming LSU’s single-season assist leader early in the first half. Wendlyn Jones added a career-high 16 points and six rebounds to the victory.
Tan White led MSU with 22 points and 11 rebounds, but LSU’s defense held the junior to 0-10 shooting from three-point range and six of 22 overall. Almost half of White’s points came from the free throw line where she connected on 10 of 13 shots.
“The tone was set because we had a total team effort on defense,” Chatman said of defending White. “She started taking long shots and that really helped us you could tell in the second half her mentality changed.”
LSU forced MSU into 17 turnovers and converted those into 25 points, while holding the Lady Bulldogs to just 28.0 percent shooting in the first half.
The Lady Tigers connected on 54.5 percent of their shots in the opening 20 minutes and shot 47.7 percent for the game and outrebounded the Lady Bulldogs 35-31.
LSU will play its final regular season home game on Thursday when they host Ole Miss at 7 p.m. in the Maravich Center. Seniors Doneeka Hodges and Johnson will be honored prior to the game.