BATON ROUGE — Sophomore center Sylvia Fowles poured in 24 points and grabbed 13 rebounds Friday as third-ranked LSU blitzed South Florida, 87-44, in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The Lady Tigers (10-0, 1-0 SEC) play host to North Carolina A&T at 1 p.m. Sunday before traveling for a conference showdown Wednesday at Auburn.
USF (10-3, 1-0 Big East) plays at Florida International Monday. The Bulls resume Big East play at Pittsburgh on Jan. 8.
Fowles scored 15 first-half points as the Lady Tigers bolted to a 48-17 lead at intermission. She added 11 in the second half to finish just one point shy of her career high, a 25-point outing at Ohio State on Dec. 15.
“We work a lot with our perimeter players on feeding the post,” the 6-6 Fowles explained. “They know if they throw the ball up, I’ll go get it, and today it showed.”
LSU coach Pokey Chatman was pleased with her team’s effort, especially just two days after a 72-52 victory over No. 10 Michigan State.
“From top to bottom it was a great team effort,” Chatman said. “If you think about that it was less than 48 hours off a big win over a top 10 team, and to come out and establish ourselves early not only defensively but offensively, I thought our team was in tune.”
LSU senior guard Scholanda Hoston scored 10 points Friday, increasing her career total to 1,008. She became the 25th player in Lady Tiger history to reach the 1,000-point milestone.
Hoston also turned in a spectacular defense effort, limiting USF forward Jessica Dickson ? who entered the game as the nation’s leading scorer at 25.6 points per game ? to just 11 points on 3-for-11 shooting from the field.
“I thought LSU did a great job on Jessica Dickson every time she caught the ball,” USF coach Jose Fernandez said. “Jessica is the leading scorer in the country, and when you don’t have an inside presence they were able to double Jessica every time she caught it, especially on ball screens. They did a very good job on her.”
“The plan was team defense,” Hoston said. “They set a million screens for (Dickson) and every time I came off one there was a teammate there to help me out with a hand in her face.”
LSU all-America guard Seimone Augustus contributed 11 points and sophomore guard Quianna Chaney poured in a career-best 18 points, including a pair of treys.
Guard Shantia Grace was the Bulls’ leading scorer with 16 points, while forward Ezria Parsons added 14 points and six rebounds.
LSU vs. South Florida
December 30, 2005
LSU HEAD COACH POKEY CHATMAN
Opening Statement…
“From top to bottom it was a great team effort. If you think about that it was less than 48 hours off a big win over a top-10 team, a game-time time change, and to come out and establish ourselves early not only defensively but offensively, and even when we substituted or they changed defenses I thought our team was in tune and they made the adjustments both mentally and physically.”
On holding Jessica Dickson to 11 points…
“If you look at Scholanda’s stats and the fact that she got to the free-throw line six times, sometimes when a player hits a lot of long balls you think they’re going to settle for that perimeter shot, but she’s doing a good job of mixing in the long ball and also penetrating the gap. It starts with Scholanda and it finishes with the rest of the team. You need a team effort to contain a player like Dickson.”
LSU Player Quotes
On holding Jessica Dickson to 11 points…
“The plan was team defense. They set a million screens for her and every time I came off of one there was a teammate there to help out. I remember one time I was late on the tag coming around and Ashley (Thomas) was there with a hand in her face. She couldn’t do anything.”
On scoring inside…
“We work a lot with our perimeter players on feeding the post. They know if they throw the ball up I’ll go get it and tonight it showed.”
SOUTH FLORIDA HEAD COACH JOSE FERNANDEZ
On playing LSU…
“When you play the No. 2 team in the country you can’t shoot as poorly as we did in the first half. They’re just very deep in all spots. We’ve faced some good teams this year, but they’re very talented at every position.”
On LSU’s defense of Jessica Dickson…
“I thought they did a great job on Jessica Dickson every time she caught it. Jessica is the leading scorer in the country, and when you don’t have an inside presence they were able to double Jessica every time she caught it, especially on ball screens. They did a very good job on her.”