BATON ROUGE — Ninth-ranked LSU held Mississippi State to 15.3-percent shooting en route to the largest margin of victory over a Southeastern Conference opponent in school history, winning 84-31 on Sunday at the Maravich Center.
The Lady Tigers (14-3, 3-0 SEC) shot 65 percent from the field in the first half to lead by 33 at the break. They held Mississippi State (12-6, 0-3 SEC) to 9-of-59 from the field.
The 53-point win surpassed the previous school record, a 44-point win over Kentucky on Jan. 16, 2003. Mississippi State’s 31 points were the second-lowest by league opponent in school history (record is 27 versus Alabama on Feb. 25, 2007).
Every Lady Tigers player saw at least eight minutes of action, and all but one scored.
“This was a total victory today,” LSU head coach Van Chancellor said. “It was a great game. We executed well, shot well, shot free throws well and defended well. Just a total win with no negatives to focus on.”
Chancellor improved his career record to 38-1 against his alma mater Mississippi State. LSU is also now 19-0 against the Lady Bulldogs in the Maravich Center.
Starting guard Quianna Chaney led all scorers with 16 points, while reserve center Mesha Williams had 12 and starting center Sylvia Fowles had 11 in 17 minutes of play.
Khalilia Mitchell came off the bench to score 10 points and give out eight assists.
LSU finished 27-of-52 shooting (51.9 percent), and added 27-of-36 free throws (75 percent). The Lady Tigers outrebounded the Bulldogs by 14, scored 23 points off 18 turnovers and has as many bench points as from the starting five.
Mississippi State had more made free throws (12) than field goals (nine) and had trouble on the offensive end of the court against the much bigger Lady Tigers.
Guard Alexis Rack led her team with seven points on 3-of-18 shooting, while Donnisha Tate added six and Danielle Rector had five.
The Bulldogs were 1-of-15 from three point range.
Less than four minutes into the game, the Lady Tigers had more points and more field goals than the Bulldogs had in the entire half.
LSU hit its first five shots from the field and forced three turnovers to lead 15-2 in the opening minutes. Chaney had eight points for the Lady Tigers.
After Mississippi State hit its second field goal of the game with 15:50 left in the first half, the Bulldogs didn’t score again until Imesia Jackson hit two free throws with 8:22 left.
Meanwhile, the Lady Tigers went on a 10-0 run to blow open the game.
The Bulldogs cut the lead to 18, 28-10, but were outscored 20-5 in the final 7:38 and trailed 48-15 at the half.
The onslaught continued in the second half, as Mississippi State made only 1-of-21 shots in the first 13 minutes to fall behind 71-17.
With LSU reserves playing most of the final 20 minutes, the Lady Tigers shot 41.4 percent (12 of 29) and led by as many as 54.
The Lady Tigers return to action on Thursday, Jan. 24, when they travel to face Auburn at 6 p.m. CT.
GAME NOTES
– Quianna Chaney scored double figures for the 14th game this season and the 53rd time in her career with 16 points today. Chaney scored at least 10 points in eight straight games.
– Sylvia Fowles scored in double figures for the 105th time in her career and the 15th time this season with 11 points today.
– Fowles double double streak in SEC games came to and at 18 straight.
– Khalilah Mitchell scored a career-high 10 points and dished out a career-best eight assists in the victory.
– Mesha Williams scored in double figures third time in her career and the first time this season with 12 points.
– With the win over Mississippi State, LSU improved to 19-0 at home against the Lady Bulldogs and 37-4 overall, including 16 straight wins.
– LSU’s 53-point victory is the largest margin of victory for LSU against an SEC opponent. The previous mark was 44 against Kentucky on Jan. 16, 2003.
LSU Head Coach Van Chancellor
Opening Statement…..
“I thought today LSU played as well as it can play. As a coach, I thought all players played great. Mesha Williams off the bench was five for five. (Khalilah) Mitchell had eight assist, it was just a great day. It was the biggest point margin victory over an SEC opponent in LSU history.”
On getting to play from the bench…
“I don’t think there is any doubt that our second unit played great and our first unit played good. When no one player plays over 20 minutes and you win by 50 points that is not bad.”
On getting the early 16-2 lead…
“I thought we played so well and our defense was outstanding. Our offensive execution was good; once again we shot 52 percent and 75 percent from the free throw line. When you shoot that well you are going to have a good night because our defense is going to be good.
On rebounding and playing good defense…
I thought Coach Bob Starkey came up with a good defensive game plan and I thought he had Mississippi State completely out of it. (Alexis) Rack and (Tysheka) Grimes their two best players were 5 for 30, making it pretty hard for their team to get things going.”
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
On the way Khalilah Mitchell and Mesha Williams played tonight…
“That is what we need from them. You never know when you will have to step up. Tonight they we had a lead and coach decided to put them in to see what they could do. They stepped up.”
On what she would like to improve…
“I’m just working on things that I can do to help the team. I’d like to get more rebounds and work on my defense.”
On the game…
“I think this might have been a game we were able to dominate both defensively and offensively. We were hitting shots. Offensively, it was one of our most dominating games.”
On LSU’s offense…
“I think it started with jump ball. As soon as we got the ball, Sylvia (Fowles) scored. That started us off. Quianna (Chaney) hit a three next time. Offensively, we started clicking early in the game. Then we knew we had to just take care of things on the defensive end.”
MISSISSIPPI STATE HEAD COACH SHARON FANNING
Opening statement…
“I think that we have to give credit to LSU in terms of their experience, their success, as a Final Four team that comes back with eight seniors and really four of them coming off the bench. You look at our basketball team, and there are a lot of freshmen and sophomores. There are a couple of juniors with experience, but even with senior Imesia (Jackson) or Donnisha (Tate) that’s another junior, this is their first time to be at LSU. This is Donnisha’s first year to play with us; she’s also a junior college transfer. There’s a lot of youth out there, and we showed it. We just didn’t play with any kind of confidence or expectation initially. We have to be more competitive. We have to work harder, and I think if we do that, then we can make it a basketball game, but you have to expect to compete. You have to expect to win, and you have to play and compete and not be scared of losing. We looked very timid. We looked scared of things, and sometimes that leads to execution, both from an offensive standpoint and a defensive standpoint. You have to give credit to LSU. They have a point guard (Erica White) that gets them in transition. They have a point guard that creates a lot of things for them and is a very steady, quick, aggressive, young lady that runs the team. Then, they have great shooters, three-point shooters. They have the rim, transition, good defense and all the things. There are a lot of good combinations there that make LSU a great basketball team, and we have to learn from this, put it behind us and get ready for our next ballgame. We have Ole Miss coming in on Thursday. This year we played at Vanderbilt. We played a second game without our starting point guard, which is a very important part to us with the experience that she has. Now, you come and play on the road at LSU. Now, we have Ole Miss coming into our place. It’s an opportunity for us to step up. We’re 1-3 (SEC), and at this point last year after that fourth game, we were 1-3 and then managed to finish in the top half of the league. That’s going to be our vision. That’s going to be our expectation: to bounce back from this, gain experience from it and just become a tougher basketball team.”
On the team’s youth…
“With young people, I think a lot of times they are going to talk, and they’re not going to say their frustrations. Nobody that probably is not confident with something is going to express that. They get into situations, and then you see if they back down to certain things or how they play. Then, as a coach or an observer, you say that they didn’t play with a lot of confidence. Sometimes the opponents having a couple of shots falling can make a big difference, but no, we prepared to compete and to win a ballgame. That’s an expectation that I prepare for every time as a coach, and it should be something that the team prepares for.”