DULUTH, Ga. — The No. 11-ranked and fourth-seeded LSU women’s basketball team held off fierce rally by fifth-seeded Ole Miss to avenge a loss earlier in the season and advance in the Southeastern Conference Tournament, 52-46.
The Lady Tigers (25-6) squandered an 18-point second-half lead but survived by scoring the game’s final six points. LSU will meet top-seeded and second-ranked Tennessee in Saturday’s 5:45 p.m. CT semifinal.
LSU matches up against Tennessee in the SEC Tournament for the fifth time in six seasons. The Lady Vols have a league-record 12 tournament titles, while LSU has two.
Ole Miss (21-10), which broke LSU’s 10-game winning streak in Oxford on Jan. 11, awaits an NCAA Tournament bid on Monday, March 12.
Using a 23-2 run that spanned both halves, LSU opened a 35-17 lead with just more than 18 minutes left in the game. After cutting the lead to 14, Ole Miss responded with a 13-0 run to get within one, 42-41.
However, LSU did not give up the lead though Ole Miss tied the game at 46-46 on a pair of free throws. All-SEC center Sylvia Fowles added 11 points and 14 rebounds with five blocked shots.
Lady Tigers forward Ashley Thomas returned to the court after missing the better part of five games. She was 0-of-3 shooting in 10 minutes of play.
Just as the rest of her team, Ole Miss’ All-SEC guard Armintie Price struggled from the field (3 of 15) but added 6-of-8 free throws to lead her team in scoring with 12 points. Guards Ashley Awkward (5 of 22 shooting, 10 points) and Alliesha Easley (3 of 9, 10 points) were also in double figures scoring.
Ole Miss shot only 25 percent from the field (16 of 65) including 1-of-10 from three-point range.
LSU’s shooting wasn’t much better, but good enough to win. The Lady Tigers hit 19-of-55 shots (35 percent) and added 13-of-20 free throws.
LSU point guard Erica White led all scorers with 17 points on 6-of-13 shooting
After committing six turnovers and falling behind 8-2 in the first six minutes, the Lady Tigers earned their first lead on a pair of free throws by guard Khalilah Mitchell, 16-15, with 5:57 left in the first half.
LSU held Ole Miss to only one field goal in the final 8:05 of the half and used a 17-2 run to take a 29-17 halftime lead.
The Lady Tigers expanded that run to 23-2 by scoring the first six points of the second half to lead 35-17 on a layup by Chaney.
A layup by Fowles with 12:54 left gave the Lady Tigers a 42-28 lead when Ole Miss responded offensively.
The Lady Rebels held LSU scoreless for 7:28 and rolled off an 13-0 run to pull within one, 42-41. During the streak, LSU missed eight-straight shots.
With less than a minute to play and the game tied at 46-46, White made a pair of free throws to retain the Lady Tigers’ lead.
Price missed a game-tying attempt for Ole Miss with 22 seconds to play, and White converted a layup on the other end to give LSU a four-point lead with 10 seconds to play.
SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament
All Times Central
FIRST ROUND – Thursday, March 1
Game 1: #8 South Carolina def. #9 Auburn, 65-63
Game 2: #7 Kentucky def. #10 Arkansas, 72-57
Game 3: #5 Ole Miss def. #12 Alabama, 78-49
Game 4: #11 Florida def. #6 Mississippi State, 67-60
QUARTERFINAL ROUND – Friday, March 2
Game 5: #1 Tennessee def. #8 South Carolina, 81-63
Game 6: #2 Georgia def. #7 Kentucky, 72-40
Game 7: #4 LSU def. #5 Ole Miss, 52-46
Game 8: #3 Vanderbilt def. #11 Florida, 105-77
SEMIFINAL ROUND – Saturday, March 3
Game 9: #1 Tennessee vs. #4 LSU, 5:45 p.m. (FOX SPORTS NET)
Game 10: #2 Georgia vs. #3 Vanderbilt, 8:15 p.m. (FOX SPORTS NET)
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – Sunday, March 4
Game 11: Game 9 Winner vs. Game 10 Winner, 6:30 p.m. (ESPN2)
2007 SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament
Game 7 – Friday, March 2 – 7:00 p.m.
#5 Ole Miss vs. #4 LSU
Ole Miss Notes
- Ole Miss’ 17 first half points represented the fewest points scored in a half in the 2007 SEC Tournament, one point fewer than the 18 point mark set by Kentucky in Game 6 earlier Friday.
- Senior Ashley Awkward reached the 900-point plateau in tonight’s game. She entered the contest needing just nine points to reach the milestone and her 10 point performance gives her 901 career points.
- Ole Miss tied the game at 46-46 with 1:11 remaining in the game, rallying from 18 points down. The 18 point comeback rates as the largest rally in the 2007 SEC Tournament.
- Senior Armintie Price collected a team-high 11 rebounds. Price is seven boards short of taking over second place on the all-time Ole Miss rebounding chart.
- Head Coach Carol Ross is now 9-10 all time against LSU.
- The Rebels are now 0-4 all-time against LSU in the SEC Tournament.
- Ole Miss did not hit a field goal from the 4:33 mark of the first half until the 16:47 point of the second half.
LSU Game Notes
- After Ole Miss tied the game at 46-46 with 1:11 remaining, capping an 18-point comeback, LSU closed the game with a 6-0 run to close out the win.
- LSU was lead by junior Erica White with 17 points
- Junior Sylvia Fowles records 18th straight double-double with 11 points and 14 rebounds; 24th double-double of the season, 59th of her career
- With the win, the Tigers move on to face #1-seed Tennessee, making its sixth consecutive appearance in the semifinals of the conference tournament
- LSU moves to 24-25 all-time in the SEC Tournament and is 6-2 under head coach Pokey Chapman
- Fowles’ 14 boards improves her rebounds by a junior record to 394 in 31 games; in addition to her 11 points, the junior moves up to seventh on the points by a junior list
- Freshman Allison Hightower sets a new career high in steals as she records four takeaways in tonight’s game
LSU
THE MODERATOR: Joining us from LSU, head coach Pokey Chatman, Rashonta LeBlanc and Erica White.
Coach, if you could start with an opening comment and we’ll take questions.
COACH CHATMAN: I’ll start with obviously what won this basketball game for us. It’s our defensive prowess, and that’s why these two young ladies are sitting up here next to me. Oftentimes that goes unnoticed when you have a game of runs and one team is up 18 and it’s a 16 2 run.
I thought Rashonta LeBlanc did an excellent job limiting Armintie Price to one offensive board, and Erica White on her contested shots with Awkward.
When you’re able to get that type of pressure on the perimeter, it helps your team defense pick up. That’s the reason why we were able to be successful tonight.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.
Q. You seemed to have some trouble getting it into Sylvia at times. What was the problem?
COACH CHATMAN: Several problems. Problems in the first half, nine turnovers. Sylvia is 6’6″ with a vertical. That’s increased this past year by three more inches. We were keeping her on the level with everyone else.
Entry pass to Sylvia has to come off some ball reversal, moving the defense. We were just a little bit anxious there. They turned us over. We played a little bit hurried. I credit the defense. We knew what they were going to do and we finally settled in and got a little bit of rhythm offensively.
Q. Talk about what you all did defensively, maybe the main game plan coming in.
COACH CHATMAN: There’s always scouting report defense in terms of how you want to handle screens, how you want to guard certain people, if they’re coming off of screens. We decided to shortcut some screens as it related to Price, meet her off at the pass. I thought Rashonta did a good job. That’s only about 25% of it with Armintie.
She’s been known to go get the balls that she’s not able to score and teammates. You can’t be excited with just contesting the shot. But it started there on Price in terms of us limiting her options.
Q. I guess you didn’t get what you wanted, you were having trouble trying to get something from the forward position. You had Porsha in there, and then you put Ashley when you could. But then Mesha, she didn’t have great numbers, but she did give you some clutch moments in the game. Talk about what you got from that position, her play?
COACH CHATMAN: You’re right. I thought the last three minutes of the first half is where Mesha did an excellent job for us. She was able to move a little bit better laterally and help some of the perimeter players on that ball screen, help when they would run the down screen and the slide across option for Price. She was there. She is has a little bit more mobility and some height.
We didn’t get to this, but we thought she could help us a little bit in the middle offense because she had a height advantage. But those last three minutes of the first half were huge with Mesha in there rebounding.
Q. Both players, could you talk about the spells that you had in this game where you went scoreless: Five minutes at the beginning and the six minutes where Ole Miss got back into the game? What’s happening there? What can you do to correct that?
ERICA WHITE: I felt like we kind of let up defensively. We didn’t continue to put a lot of pressure on Ole Miss. They got a lot of free throws, open looks. I credit Ole Miss for knocking the shots down. I feel like it was our defense. Offensively we just didn’t attack. We didn’t continue to a attack. Didn’t try to get in ball in the paint, whether it be off penetration or post feed.
We kind of did it to ourselves, but luckily we were able to battle back and get out of it.
RASHONTA LEBLANC: I feel the same way. We let up a little bit on defense. We waited too long to attack on the offensive end. The pressure was on us. We put the pressure on ourselves. That had a little to do with it.
Q. Why are you so glum?
COACH CHATMAN: Focus.
Q. What is the deal with Sylvia’s shoulder?
COACH CHATMAN: She just wanted a rubdown from the trainer, that’s all. She’s fine. Just fell on it. She has one bionic shoulder from surgery. She’s doing fine.
Q. You took great offense at the call with 7:50 left in the second half on Sylvia. Were you thinking afterwards, I might get a technical foul here? Were you like, I got to say something? You wanted too make your point?
COACH CHATMAN: I swear it didn’t feel like you’re describing it. That’s why I have this puzzled look on my face. I have to show some poise, like I expect my point guard to be poised at the point.
Every now and again it just grates at me with Sylvia. She’s 6’6″. She’s difficult to handle. I guess I just needed to fight for her.
Q. Erica obviously had a huge night offensively. How important was that for her to break out not just in this game but the last few games?
COACH CHATMAN: It’s huge. There’s been a couple times when E was the only one scoring and we weren’t as successful. But the free throws at the end of the game. I don’t care what the total is I do care what the total is but those free throws were huge. She stepped up there. She wanted to take them.
It gives you so many options because it came as a three, it comes with penetration, comes off of her steal. The one at the end where she got the layup. It’s awesome when you can get double digits out of your point guard. But also the defensive pressure she can apply to their point guard is what helps us the most.
Q. Can you look ahead to Tennessee and what are the keys to that game? You played them 10 days ago. There’s a lot of familiarity there already.
COACH CHATMAN: Yeah, you know, you go back I can easily tell you what the key is going to be. We gave up 20 offensive boards last time. If you’re going to defend at the clip that we’ve been defending, pick up your paycheck at the end of the week and get the rebound. You put in so much work.
That’s a good thing. You hold a team to 20 points below their average, you’re supposed to win. But we didn’t. That’s because there’s no defense with second chance points. I think that’s the first place to start.
Then we can’t allow them to turn us over. A turnover with Tennessee is a layup. We’ll be ready.
Q. The game tomorrow, you play it more for winning the championship of this league? Your seeding for the NCAA tournament? All of the above?
COACH CHATMAN: Everything. It’s that time of year, it’s a great opponent that can test you in ways that will tell you the most about your team going into the third season, which is NCAA tournament.
We’ve always had battles with Tennessee. There won’t be any secrets. The scout is out on us and on them. It’s a matter of who can bump it down for 40 minutes and dig their heels in and get it done.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.