DULUTH, Ga. — In the Southeastern Conference Tournament final, No. 13 Vanderbilt held No. 12 LSU without a basket in the last 6:03 and pulled away in the final minute, 51-45, on Sunday.
Fourth-seeded LSU (26-7), which got a career-best 19 points from junior guard RaShonta LeBlanc, struggled from the field throughout but was able to stay close with solid defense.
The Lady Tigers lost in the tournament final for the third-straight season by a combined margin of nine points.
LeBlanc, who hit 7-of-14 shots on her way to all-tournament honors, was the only Lady Tigers player other than All-SEC center Sylvia Fowles (4-of-11, 13 points) to make more than one field goal. The rest of the team was 4 of 27 (14.6 percent) from the field.
LSU finished 15-of-52 (29 percent), including 6-of-27 in the second half.
Third-seeded Vanderbilt (28-5) won its second league tournament title over the Lady Tigers and fifth overall, having beat LSU in 2002 as well.
Though the Commodores were held 42 points below their tournament average, their 42-percent shooting performance was enough to handle the Lady Tigers.
Guard Dee Davis also led her team with 19 points on 7-of-14 shooting, while tournament MVP Carla Thomas scored 13 points on 5-of-11 field goals. No other Commodores player scored more than five points.
In a low-scoring first 11 minutes, the teams were still tied at 9-9. Vanderbilt earned its first lead on a pair of free throws by Davis, 13-12, with 7:08 left in the half.
The Lady Tigers responded with a 7-1 run over the next 3:08 to take a 19-14 lead when reserve guard Khalilah Mitchell hit a 12-foot jumper from the right wing — the only LSU basket of the half not scored by LeBlanc or Fowles.
Vanderbilt rolled off six-straight points in the paint and retook the lead, 20-19, with 1:37 left.
The Commodores held a 24-23 advantage at the half after making their final four shots in the last three minutes.
LeBlanc and Fowles combined to make 8-of-12 shots and score 21 points, while the rest of the Lady Tigers were 1-of-13 in the half.
Both teams started the second half 2-of-10 from the field, as Davis hit Vanderbilt’s first three-pointer of the game to give the Commodores a 30-27 lead with 11:57 left in the game.
LeBlanc scored five-straight to put the Lady Tigers up 32-30 with 9:04 left, when the see-saw on the scoreboard began.
Vanderbilt then scored consecutive baskets to lead 46-43 with 2:04 to play.
Still trailing by three, LSU’s Erica White forced a turnover and Ashley Thomas hit a pair of free throws to cut the lead to 46-45 with 29.9 seconds to play.
LSU was unable to foul Vanderbilt on the full-court press, allowing Davis to score a fast-break layup with 24.2 seconds on the clock.
The Lady Tigers await an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament on Monday, March 12.
SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament
All-Tournament Team
Sylvia Fowles, LSU
RaShonta LeBlanc, LSU
Erica White, LSU
Alexis Hornbuckle, Tennessee
Christina Wirth, Vanderbilt
Carla Thomas, Vanderbilt (MVP)
2007 SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament
Game 11 – Sunday, March 4 – 7:30 p.m.
#4 LSU vs. #3 Vanderbilt
LSU Notes
- LSU drops its overall record to 26-7
- The Tigers were led by juniors LaShonta LeBlanc and Sylvia Fowles, with 19 and 13 points respectively
- LeBlanc sets a career high with 19 points and in field goal and FG attempts going 7-of-14
- The championship game marks the lowest scoring game in the finals of the conference tournament
- The 24-23 halftime score ties the smallest halftime deficit for LSU all season; the Tigers were also down by one point at halftime on Dec. 30 versus Louisiana Tech
- LSU is now 14-18 in the all-time series with Vanderbilt
- The Tigers are 25-26 all-time in the SEC Tournament and has played in the championship game seven times
- Fowles has now scored in double-figures in 26 straight games
Vanderbilt Notes
- Vanderbilt’s 51 points was an all-time low for a winning team in the SEC Tournament.
- The 96 combined points was the lowest combined point total for two teams in the SEC Tournament.
- Vandy held LSU to 45 points, tying for the fewest points scored by a Commodore opponent in SEC play this season.
- Vanderbilt is now 5-2 in SEC Tournament Championship Games.
- Vandy has won the SEC Championship as the #3 seed three times, previously in 1993 and 2002.
- Vanderbilt improves to 22-1 on the year when leading at halftime.
- Senior Caroline Williams was held to just three points, leaving her three short of the 1,000-point mark for her career. Williams, the nation’s leading three-point shooter was held without a three pointer. As a team, Vandy was held to 1-9 from the three-point line, representing a season low in made threes.
- Senior Dee Davis’ led the Commodores with 19 points, just the 2nd time this year she has led Vandy in scoring.
- The Commodores are now 27-5 on the season and 36-23 all-time in the SEC Tournament.
LSU
THE MODERATOR: Now joined by LSU head coach Pokey Chatman and players Rashonta LeBlanc and Sylvia Fowles.
Coach, if you could make an opening comment.
COACH CHATMAN: I want to start by congratulating Vanderbilt for the conference tournament championship. You know, we knew going into the game we were going to face a very good offensive team with a ton of weapons, but also a team that probably doesn’t get the credit they deserve for the match up zone that they play. We thought we had some things figured out in terms of what we needed to do in order to attack that. But I didn’t think we gave ourselves enough opportunity. We didn’t quite have our offensive moxy or mojo. We’re were not as poised as we had been throughout the tournament. A lot of credit goes to Vanderbilt for that. We have to take responsibility for it, as well. But we kept relying on the defense to create more opportunities for us to experience success, and we didn’t quite capitalize on it.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.
Q. The game was slowly paced all through the night with few fastbreaks. Did you consider putting any press to up tempo it, or was that something that was never part of the thought?
COACH CHATMAN: You know, you could think about several different things. I thought initially we had a good game plan in terms of the number of opportunities we were creating for ourselves, rebound opportunities, opportunities to get back and run. They’re a good transition defense team. A lot of those opportunities didn’t present itself. But you don’t want to, you know, play six one way, half dozen of another in terms of if you get beat by one and you get it up to three. I wanted to take away opportunities for their shooters. We wanted to stay close to them. The best way to do that was in the halfcourt. We cut this court down. One for nine in three point land for that team, holding them to 51 points gives a good chance to win, but you have to marry that with some good offense to give yourself an even better chance.
Q. What does it say about the balance in the SEC in particular and in women’s college basketball in general when you have the No. 3 and No. 4 seed in the finals here?
COACH CHATMAN: It says what the coaches and players in the league have been saying for years. It always gets questioned. It was put to the test today. Quality coaches, quality players. It’s not just a fly by night thing. I think it’s been that way for as long as I can remember. That’s what makes it fun.
Q. This is three years in a row you have come so close. How difficult is that to go through year in and year out?
SYLVIA FOWLES: It’s very difficult knowing you work so hard to get here and to come up short every time. It’s definitely difficult. Just knowing that we’re better and what we’re capable of, to see us come up short every time is just depressing.
Q. Pokey, what did they do to make it difficult to try to get the ball to Sylvia earlier in the shot clock? Seems like they would sag down low, y’all would get 15 seconds, 20 seconds, sag down low, make it difficult to make the pass. Why not the ability to get it into her very quickly?
COACH CHATMAN: I think it’s several things. I think it’s the concept of team defense. When you think of someone doubling the post, you delegate that just to the post players and not to the perimeter players who are quick enough, big enough, and anticipate well enough to where that happens and maybe Sylvia is open maybe their view is obscured and you can’t see that. I think it’s just a total team concept. You do a good job of anticipating, jumping, moving, making you think your guard is in certain areas, those opportunities are not quite as long as most team’s. But they do a good job.
Q. Winners bounce back after they’re faced with adversity. Does that add fuel to the fire?
COACH CHATMAN: Definitely. These kids are competitors. But they also understand in the grand scheme of things what this tournament is about. Obviously it’s an opportunity to gain momentum. It’s an opportunity to win a championship. But because this league is so tough, it’s an opportunity to make you realize and understand why you’re good, where you need to be better, what you struggle with going into the next season because you don’t have that window. You have a true indication of what you need to work on when you go back to practice.
Q. Rashonta, could you talk about your view of this game, the role you tried to play, maybe some of the things coach talked about that didn’t work out for you to get the victory?
RASHONTA LeBLANC: Well, my role was just to knock down open shots. We have to take the pressure off of Sylvia, knock down some open shots. I just tried to knock down open shots and play hard on defense against Caroline Williams, who is a great three point shooter. Just try to hold her down.
Q. If somebody told you before the game you were going to hold Vanderbilt to one three pointer, would you think you would probably have a pretty good chance to win the game?
COACH CHATMAN: Most definitely. I know what my team is capable of. I know what they bring to the table. Just happens tonight we fell short.
Q. You talked about addressing your strengths and weaknesses heading into the tournament. What are some of those strengths and weaknesses you’re going to be addressing this week in practice?
COACH CHATMAN: Score with the basketball and find different ways to do it. Everyone knows about the woman in the middle. They’re not quite sure about everyone else. We know what we’re capable of doing.
It’s not about having a No. 1, 2, 3 scorer. The game will present itself, who that person is going to be. It happened to be Rashonta tonight. The other day it was Allison. The game and their scouting report defense was they take that. But just more an offensive poise, some discipline.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.