BATON ROUGE — LSU’s top-ranked Lady Tigers basketball team opened Southeastern Conference play on Saturday afternoon at the Maravich Center with a 76-52 victory over No. 17 Georgia in front of the third largest crowd in the program’s history.
10,624 fans witnessed LSU (14-1, 1-0 SEC) jump out to an early 6-0 lead and never look back. Georgia (12-4, 2-1 SEC) was able to cut the lead down to two points on a few occasions in the first half, but LSU ended the half with a 11-2 run and led 34-22 at the break.
Georgia then cut the lead back to eight, 36-28, early in the second half before LSU used a 10-0 run to pull away and maintain a solid lead.
“Coming off the loss at Rutgers, we talked to our kids about this being a perfect opportunity to learn some things,” LSU head coach Pokey Chatman said. “I felt going into the half that the stage was set to see if we had done just that and when I look at the stats, I think we did a great job of giving absolute effort and I am extremely please with the way we responded to the loss.”
Seimone Augustus, who left the game midway through the second half with a left elbow injury, scored 14 second-half points, including eight during the Lady Tigers run, and finished with a game-high 22.
Wendlyn Jones collected her third career double-double with 10 points and a career-best 13 rebounds for the Lady Tigers, while Scholanda Hoston added 17 points and Temeka Johnson had a double-double with 12 points and 11 assists.
Tasha Humphrey led Georgia with 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Cori Chambers had 13 points.
LSU shot 45.5 percent from the floor for the game, including hitting 55.6 percent in the second half. Georgia shot 37.0 percent, including just 32.3 percent in the first half. The Lady Tigers outrebounded the Lady Bulldogs 51-30 and forced 16 turnovers in the game.
LSU will return to action on Thursday at Florida for a SEC battle at 5:30 p.m. CST in Gainesville.
GAME NOTES
- The crowd of 10,624 was the third largest crowd to witness a women’s game in the Maravich Center and is the second largest crowd for a Pack the PMAC promotional event.
- Seimone Augustus moved into 10th-place on LSU’s career scoring list, passing former teammate Doneeka Hodges with her 22 points in the game.
- Augustus scored in double figures for the 41st consecutive game, tying Cornelia Gayden’s school record mark of 41 straight.
- Augustus also scored at least 20 points for the third straight game and the 35th time in her career.
- Temeka Johnson collected her second double-double of the season and 16th of her career with 12 points and 11 assists.
- Wendlyn Jones collected her first double-double of the season and third of her career with 10 points and a career-high 13 rebounds.
- Temeka Johnson moved into third-place in career assists in the Southeastern Conference with her 11 today. She passed former Tennessee player Dawn Marsh and now has 769.