BATON ROUGE — Seimone Augustus’ 23 points and Temeka Johnson’s season-high 22 led LSU’s 15th-ranked Lady Tigers to a 85-68 victory over Ole Miss in Southeastern Conference action on Senior Night in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Johnson and Doneeka Hodges were honored prior to the game as the LSU seniors played in their final regular season home game. The Lady Tigers host the first and second round of the 2004 NCAA Tournament on March 21 and 23.
LSU (22-5, 10-3 SEC) went back and forth with Ole Miss (15-12, 6-7 SEC) for most of the first half before ending the half with a 15-3 run to take a 40-29 lead into the locker room. The Lady Tigers held the Lady Rebels to a free throw and a jumper over the final five minutes of the first half.
Ole Miss was able to cut the lead back to six points midway through the second half, but LSU used a 7-0 run to pull away and take a double digit lead again.
“We really had a total team effort,” LSU acting head coach Pokey Chatman said. “Despite it being senior night and emotions were high, it seemed like we were sleepwalking through our half-court offense over the first six minutes and still managed to put up 40 points in the half. I was please with the way we finished the first half and the game.”
Augustus, who scored her 1,000 career point on a free throw with 9:43 left in the game, became 23rd player in school history to reach the milestone and the eighth player to do so in two seasons or less.
Scholanda Hoston added 12 points off the bench for the Lady Tigers, while Hodges had 10 points and a season-high nine rebounds. Johnson added seven assists to her point total and connected on 12 of 15 shots from the free throw line.
LSU outrebounded Ole Miss 46-37 and held the Lady Rebels to 33.8 percent shooting in the game, including 29.7 in the second half. The Lady Tigers connected on 44.3 percent from the floor.
The Lady Tigers will complete the 2003-04 regular season by traveling to Knoxville, Tenn., to face the second-ranked Lady Vols on Sunday at 2 p.m. CST.