SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — LSU’s top-ranked Lady Tigers basketball team earned a hard-fought victory and the program’s 600th win with a 66-54 win over Southwest Missouri State at the Hammons Center on Saturday afternoon.
“This environment mimicked championship level basketball,” LSU head coach Pokey Chatman said about the crowd at the Hammons Center. “It forces you to become a really good communicating team. Everything we experienced here today is going to make us a better team.”
LSU (10-0) was able to come from behind in front of a hostile 8,431 fans. The Lady Tigers, who led 26-17 at the break after opening the game on a 14-4 run, saw SMS (4-4) use a 11-4 run with 6:25 left to play in the second half to take a 49-47 lead before LSU used a 16-0 run to retake the lead and pull away. LSU outscored SMS 19-5 over the final 6:25 of the game.
Freshmen Quianna Chaney, Sylvia Fowles and Ashley Thomas sparked LSU’s run, scoring the first 10 points during the stretch, including a three-pointer by Chaney that gave the Lady Tigers the lead back to LSU for good.
“When it came down to it we had some freshmen step up when they (SMS) took the lead,” Chatman said. “As a result we were able to pull this game out.”
Seimone Augustus led the Lady Tigers with 19 points, while Scholanda Hoston added 13, Fowles had 11 and Chaney finished with 10. Fowles added 10 rebounds to earn her sixth double-double of the season.
Jenni Lingor, who entered the game averaging 23.6 points per game, was held to 16 points on 5 of 18 shooting. Kari Koch added 14 points off the bench in a losing effort.
LSU shot 54.3 percent from the floor for the game, including 57.7 percent in the second half. SMS connected on just 36.7 percent from the flood, including 25.9 in the first half. The Lady Tigers outrebounded the Bears 33-25.
The Lady Tigers wrap-up the three-game road trip by visiting UC-Santa Barbara on Tuesday at 9 p.m. CST in LSU’s final game before the holiday break.