BATON ROUGE — Behind a 19-point, 20-rebound effort by All-American Sylvia Fowles, the No. 8 LSU women’s basketball team won its 20th game of the season, 65-45, on Sunday at the Maravich Center.
LSU (20-2, 6-1 SEC) also won its 42nd-consecutive home game in the process, while Auburn (15-7, 2-4 SEC) lost for the fourth time in six games.
The Lady Tigers have now won at least 20 games in each of the past five seasons and eight of the last nine.
Fowles made only 5-of-13 shots, but dominated the glass to bolster LSU’s 13 second-chance points. She had 10 offensive and 10 defensive rebounds, while making 9-of-12 free throws.
LSU guard Quianna Cheney added 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting with three assists, and forward Ashley Thomas chipped in 11 points, five rebounds and four steals.
Guards RaShonta LeBlanc and Erica White combined for nine assists and only three turnovers for LSU.
The Lady Tigers forced 14 Auburn turnovers and scored 15 points as a result.
Guard Whitney Boddie was the lone Auburn player in double figures scoring with 14 points, while grabbing six rebounds and dishing five assists. However, just as the rest of the Tigers, she struggled to 5-of-14 shooting against the suffocating top-ranked LSU defense.
LSU allowed 46.7 points per game entering the contest, and didn’t allow Auburn to eclipse that number. Auburn was held to 18-of-55 shooting (32.7 percent), while LSU’s 41.8 percent was plenty enough for victory.
“As a team there was some areas, especially offensively, that I did not think we executed to my liking,” LSU head coach Pokey Chatman said. “We did it execute in spurts, but we just have to do a better job of bringing everything together more often. Overall it was a good win against a good team.”
Thomas’ defense in particular helped shut down DeWanna Bonner, Auburn’s leading scorer entering the game. Bonner managed a season-low six points.
“I always talk about Ashley Thomas and how aggressive she is,” Chatman said. “I though she did an excellent job on DeWanna Bonner by standing between her and the basket and contesting shots and even to the point of limiting her to seven attempts.”
Fowles scored five of LSU’s first 11 points, as the Lady Tigers built an 11-3 lead in the first seven minutes.
Boddie scored a pair of baskets allowing Auburn to answer with a 7-2 run of its own, cutting the deficit to 13-10 less than three minutes later.
Leading 16-13, the Lady Tigers scored nine-straight points to earn a 25-13 advantage on a Hightower jumper with 3:01 left in the half.
LSU held that lead at halftime, 30-18.
Auburn briefly got within 10, 32-22, before Chaney hit a pair of three pointers to push the LSU margin to 42-24 with 13:39 to play.
But the Tigers from the Plains weren’t finished, as LSU cooled from the field and Auburn made 6-of-10 shots in a six-minute span to creep within 10 at the 7:00 mark, 47-37.
Once again, LSU puts the clamps on defensively and executed on the offensive end. The Lady Tigers made 7-of-8 free throws and added a jumper by Thomas in just more than three minutes to put the game out of reach, 56-37.
LSU takes to the road for consecutive games at Georgia on Thursday at 6 p.m. CST and at South Carolina on Sunday at 2 p.m. CST.
GAME NOTES
– Sylvia Fowles recorded her 15th double double of the season and the 50th of her career with 19 points and 20 rebounds today. The double double is the ninth strsight for the junior center.
– Fowles collected at least 20 rebounds for the second time in her career. She pulled down 22 against Vanderbilt last season.
– Quianna Chaney has scored in double figures in 13 straight games with her 17 points today.
– Ashley Thomas equaled her season-high with 11 points today.
– LSU recorded its 19th 20-win season in the program’s history and this is the fifth straight year to reach at least 20 wins.
– LSU extended its nation’s best home court win streak to 42 straight games. The Lady Tigers have also now won 20 straight SEC home games.
HEAD COACH POKEY CHATMAN QUOTES
Opening statement…
“Yes and I would like to start with some individual things that I thought were exceptional. I always talk about Ashley Thomas and how aggressive she is. I though she did an excellent job on DeWanna Bonner by standing between her and the basket and contesting shots and even to the point of limiting her to seven attempts. Now granted she had a little foul trouble in the first half, but Ashley did a great job with that. She also coupled that with some good offensive production for us in double digits. Sylvia missed some cheap shots, but I though her aggression was at a higher level. You could see her intent. She was attacking the basket and got to the free throw line. One other person is RaShonta LeBlanc. She has been so good defensively. You think about those individuals. I think as a team there were some areas especially offensively I did not think we executed to my liking. We did it on spurts. We just have to do a better job of bringing everything together more often.”
On Sylvia’s Fowles shooting…
“She has missed some of those cheap shots before that she has not rebounded and I think that goes in line with how her mindset was more aggressive today. You could see that on the stat sheet. She didn’t get frustrated when she was blocked and pushed. I guess she is kind of getting use to it. That is just something you have to do to combat her size and speed. When you look at Quianna Chaney I thought she did a good job in terms of her scoring output. Overall it was a good win against a good team.”
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
On her ability to score in the second half …
“In the first half they (Auburn) were trying to take the drive away, so the second half kind of left the outside shots open. And they were doubling down on (LSU C) Sylvia (Fowles), so the outside shot was kind of open so I just knocked it down.”
On how she fronted Auburn’s guards who posted up …
“Any time when a guard posts up, it’s our job (as guards) to front no matter what because we’re going to have help backside.”
On the team’s slow start to the game …
“We came out a little slow in the beginning, but that was more on us as opposed to what they were doing on defense. We just tried to correct anything by ourselves without coaches having to tell us to do it.”
On her increased productivity over the last few games …
“We shoot those shots (from the baseline) every day in practice, so we get a lot of work on them. So I’m just knocking them down when I get a chance to shoot them.”
On shutting down Auburn G DeWanna Bonner …
“We just watched film on what she could do, so I was just trying to make sure I stayed in front of her as much as possible. I knew I was quick enough to stay with her, her not being a true post player, but I just tried to work as hard on defense as I could.”
AUBURN HEAD COACH NELL FORTNER QUOTES
Opening statement…
“I think LSU’s defense is very good. They shut things down on you very quickly and take you out of what you are trying to do. They just do a great job defensively. They shut down lanes very quickly and make it hard for you to run your offense. I thought we did as good of job as we could defensively on Sylvia Fowles. She was only shot 5-13, but we gave up too many second chance opportunities to them. Anytime you are preparing to play LSU, Fowles is such a match up problem. There is no answer for her. To hold her to 5-13 I was pleased with that but we just gave away too many offensive rebounds.”