GREENVILLE, S.C. — Scholanda Hoston’s three-pointer hit the rim and fell out with four seconds left to play and LSU’s top-ranked and No. 1 seeded Lady Tigers basketball team fell just short, 67-65, to second-seeded and fourth-ranked Tennessee on Sunday night in the championship game of the 2005 Southeastern Conference Tournament in the BI-LO Center.
LSU (29-2) held a four-point lead with 1:33 left to play in the game after a jumper by Temeka Johnson, but Tennessee (26-4) ended the game with a 6-2 run to claim the school’s first tournament title since 2000.
“It’s a loss and we know we have another game coming up,” LSU head coach Pokey Chatman said. “We’ll break this game down and learn from the clips. I kind of like the fact we have a lot of time to clean some things up.”
LSU will await the NCAA Tournament selection show next Sunday to determine when and where their next game will be.
Johnson finished the game with 13 points and 12 assists to earn All-Tournament honors, while teammate Seimone Augustus had 23 points and five rebounds and also made the All-Tournament team.
Shyra Ely, the tournament MVP, scored 25 points for Tennessee, while Shanna Zolman finished the game with eight points, including two big three-pointers in the final four minutes of the game.
The second half saw nine lead changes, but LSU led from the six minute mark until Tennessee retook the lead for good on a lay-up by Ely with 32 seconds left.
The first half went back and forth as well, with 12 ties and seven lead changes before LSU went on a 12-2 run to take a 37-31 lead at the break. The Lady Tigers’ six-point half time lead turned out to be the largest of the game for either team.
“We were fortunate to be in the game in the first half,” Chatman said. “Tennessee had a big rebounding edge, but the neutralizing factor was that we executed offensively.”
LSU shot 56.5 percent from the floor in the first half while Tennessee connected on 40.0 percent of its shots, but the Lady Vols outrebounded LSU 21-9 in the first 20 minutes.
The Lady Tigers ended up shooting 45.3 percent from the floor, but just 36.7 percent in the second half. They also grabbed 30 rebounds, while Tennessee hit for 44.4 percent and had 35 boards.