BATON ROUGE — LSU’s 11th-ranked women’s basketball team returned to the Maravich Center for the first time in 16 days and won its fourth-straight game, 80-44, over Detroit on Saturday.
The Lady Tigers (9-1) held Detroit (1-5) to only 16.7 percent shooting in the first half to open a 36-13 lead at the break and coast to victory with its starters on the bench for most of the second half.
“One area that stands out for me is that we were able to play defense with a lot of intensity and discipline,” LSU head coach Pokey Chatman said. “In the first half we only committed two personal fouls and only gave up 13 points.”
LSU center Sylvia Fowles led the way with 26 points and nine rebounds, making 9-of-13 shots from the field and 8 of 10 from the free throw line. She scored 17 in the first half to help blow the game open before halftime.
Before leaving the game with 12:44 to play in the game, the LSU starters used a 16-0 run to build a 60-19 lead. Fowles scored eight of the 16.
Every other Lady Tigers player saw action and scored, but only starting guard Quianna Chaney joined Fowles with double figures scoring with 15 on 6-of-11 shooting. Chaney was active defensively, scoring five of LSU’s 14 steals and adding three assists.
Reserve guard Khalilah Mitchell added seven points for the Lady Tigers.
LSU finished 31 of 70 shooting (44.8 percent), while the Titans were 16-of-55 shooting for 29.1 percent. The Lady Tigers also forced 21 turnovers and grabbed 14 steals with only seven fouls.
“We only committed seven personal fouls the whole game and that is something I am happy about, but there are still a lot of areas we need to improve on,” Chatman added. “One thing is that we played in spurts and we can’t get to where we want to be if we play in spurts.”
After going 0-for-10 in the first half, guard Joyce Massey led the way in scoring for Detroit by scoring 16 second-half points on 6-of-12 shooting. She also added a game-high 11 rebounds.
Titans forward Sandi Brown was 5-of-11 shooting for 14 points, while dishing a game-high seven assists with four turnovers.
LSU trailed by a basket for the first three minutes of the game, but a three-point play by Fowles started an 11-0 run and gave the Lady Tigers a lead they would not lose.
LSU returns to action on Sunday, Dec. 10, when No. 6 Ohio State visits the Maravich Center for a 2 p.m. CT contest that will be televised live on Cox Sports Television.
GAME NOTES
– Sylvia Fowles moved into 19th-place on LSU’s career scoring list with her 26 points in today’s game. She now has 1,147 career points.
– Fowles reached the 20-point plateau for the 17th time in her career with her 26 points today.
– Fowles was honored before the game for becoming LSU’s career blocked shots leader.
– LSU has held it opponents to 20 points or fewer in 11 of the 20 halves of basketball this season, including Detroit’s 13 in the first half today.
– LSU extended its nation’s best home court win streak to 36 straight. The Lady Tigers have now also won 39 straight home games against non-conference opponents.
– LSU has now won 25 straight games in the month of December.
LSU HEAD COACH POKEY CHATMAN QUOTES
Opening statement…
“I think one area that stands out for me is that we were able to play defense with a lot of intensity and discipline. In the first we only committed two personal fouls and only gave up 13 points. We only committed seven personal fouls the whole game and that is something I am happy about, but there are still a lot of areas we need to improve on. One thing is that we played in spurts and we can’t get to where we want to be if we play in spurts. It’s a 40 minute game and we have to be able to play at a high level for the whole game if we want to be successful.”
On the team’s improvement in the second half…
“After the first four minutes of the first half we had a really nice defensive run and that spurred our offense, which is something we stressed to the team at halftime. We came out in the second half and you could see an improvement in our effort. The key is that we should play with that intent the whole game. It shouldn’t take three to four minutes to get it going. Our mindset should be to have that effort and intent once the ball is tipped.”
On Sylvia Fowles getting the ball more…
“To be honest, Sylvia plays the most important role in allowing different people to get her the ball. She has to be the fastest player down the floor, because the quicker she gets down the court the more opportunities for her teammates to give her the ball.”
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
On if her mindset was to come out and score as many points as she had today …
“Yeah. Like I told you before, this is a consistent effort from here on out. I’m going to start off my game being aggressive. Like I said, I’m tired of Coach Chatman yelling, ‘I need to come out aggressive,’ so I’m going to take a little pressure off her shoulders and go ahead and start every game out like that.”
On her thought process once the game gets underway …
“Once the ball is tipped my mindset is just to go out there and dominate and do everything within my power to help my team out.”
On if Coach Chatman wants her to attack from the outset …
“Attack from the get-go. Once I get into the flow, then it’s normal for the rest of my teammates. It’s like I start the energy off and everything goes through me and then through my teammates. And that’s going to pick them up if I get off to a good start.”
On what it was like to perform well in the second half …
“Well, actually I really wasn’t focusing on coming out, and if I was off I was off. I wasn’t going to beat myself up about it, so I was going to work on the areas where I can help my team. If it’s defense, I’m going to do that. If it’s getting Sylvia (Fowles) the ball, then it’s getting Sylvia the ball. So if we get the ball to her everybody is going to double down on her, and it’s going to leave an outside shot open or a drive.”
On what Coach Chatman said after she called a timeout in the second half …
“Defense-wise, we weren’t playing defense at that moment, at that time, so she wanted us to play a little tighter defense. So that’s what we had to come out and do.”
On playing at home …
“Well, as Pokey (Chatman) said, ‘There’s really no place like home.’ With our fans getting us hyped we were able to come out and just got to do it at home and give them what they wanted.”