BATON ROUGE — After taking as much as a 17-point lead in the second half, the eight-ranked LSU women’s basketball team held off a late surge by No. 24 Georgia to come away with a 63-57 victory on Sunday afternoon in the Maravich Center.
The Lady Tigers (20-3, 9-0 SEC) led 45-28 with 15:41 left to play in the game after Quianna Chaney hit her fourth three-pointer of the game. Georgia (17-7, 4-5 SEC) then scored 11 of the next 13 points of the game to cut LSU’s lead inside double figures.
The Lady Bulldogs got as close as four points on a few occasions in the final seven minutes of the game, including 56-52 with 5:44 left after Angel Robinson knocked down a pair of free throws.
LSU answered Georgia’s call with a 6-0 run when RaShonta LeBlanc connected on a pair of jumpers and Erica White made a lay-up.
Georgia did cut the lead back down to 62-57 with 1:31 left to play, but missed the final five shots of the game.
“Our team did a nice job of holding on today,” LSU head coach Van Chancellor said. “Georgia played extremely well. This was a perfect game of us to find out where we are at this point of the season. We showed that we could hang on a beat a good team.”
Sylvia Fowles led LSU with 19 points and 15 rebounds, while Chaney had 14 points and LeBlanc added 14 points, six assists and three steals.
Tasha Humphrey led Georgia with 17 points and 11 rebounds, while Angel Robinson added 14 points and 11 boards. Ashley Houts, who fouled out in the final minute of the game, finished with 13 points.
LSU, who won for the 11th straight time, led 37-24 at the break after using a 13-0 run to pull away. Georgia did not score for over seven minutes during the stretch, but did manage to climb within five points before the Lady Tigers scored 15 of the last 22 points of the half.
Defensively, LSU held Georgia to just 32.1 percent shooting from the floor, including just 7-23 from three-point range. The Lady Tigers forced 16 turnovers and converted them into 20 points. The Lady Bulldogs stayed in the game by hitting 16 of 17 from the free throw line.
LSU shot 42.4 percent from the floor, but Georgia won the battle on the boards, 38-36.
The Lady Tigers now own a half-game lead on top of the Southeastern Conference with the victory. Tennessee, 8-0 in the league, visits Rutgers on Monday night before hosting LSU on Thursday night in Thompson-Boling Arena.
GAME NOTES
– Quianna Chaney scored in double figures for the 20th game this season and the 59th game of her career with 14 points today.
– Sylvia Fowles scored in double figures for the 20th game this season and the 110th game of her career with 19 points today.
– Fowles recorded her 74th career double double and the 12th of the season with 19 points and 15 rebounds today.
– RaShonta LeBlanc scored in double figures for the fifth game this season and the 12 game of her career with a season-high 14 points today.
– With LSU’s four 3-point baskets tonight, the Lady Tigers have now made at least three 3-pointers in each of the last 14 games dating back to the Illinois-Chicago game on Dec. 18.
– LSU moved to 9-0 in the SEC for the third time and the third time in the last four seasons.
– LSU collected its 20th win for the 20th time in the program’s history. This is also the sixth straight 20-win season for the Lady Tigers.
LSU HEAD COACH VAN CHANCELLOR
Opening statement…
“I thought our team did a nice job of holding on. Sometimes the expectations of this team are to reach certain things, but they played a team that played really well today. I thought Georgia played better than the five or six games that I watched on tape of them. We held them to 32 percent shooting and we found a way to make them. We shot free throws enough to make them at the end.”
On if it benefits his team that this was not a ?blow out’ victory…
“No doubt in my mind. I thought that this was the perfect game for us. We need to improve and we have played seven games that were not this close. Georgia is a team that can create problems for you. (Tasha) Humphrey is a real tough match up for us and their point guard (Ashley Houts) does some real nice things. The way they play is really hard for us to defend. Anytime you can win and there is still some room to coach and improve, that is the best environment. Why should you have to lose to learn?”
On if there is anything he struggles with when coaching this team…
“If there is one thing I am struggling with when coaching this team is trying to teach them the value of not removing themselves from the game when they have fouls. When Ashley (Thomas) got her third foul that hurt us.”
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
On if she was looking to make a statement at the game…
“You don’t really look to make a statement, but you know if you don’t show up and they have key players like Tasha Humphrey, then you can go down with a loss. You just have to focus and play your game.”
On playing in front of a home crowd…
“There is no place like home. You always enjoy playing in front of your own crowd. I think we have one of the best crowds ever. Our fans give us a lot of support and without them we couldn’t do too much. I want to thank the fans that came out today and supported us at the game.”
On if LSU was prepared for Georgia cutting the lead so quickly…
“That is something we prepare ourselves for every day. You compete for something you want so badly and that is something we prepare for every day. Coach said there would be a game when we would have to find a way and we would have to give it our all to win. I think today we have proven that point.”
On if she feels the game against Georgia will help LSU when they play Tennessee…
“Yes, I’m sure it will help us, but then again, you prepare differently for Tennessee. We will see when we get to that game.”
On Ashley Thomas‘ role…
“Ashley (Thomas) is phenomenal. She is one of those players where you can put her in and tell her to do the dirty work and she has no problem with it. She went out and played hard for the whole time on Tasha Humphrey. You have to consider she is a little undersized. In Ashley’s position, she outthinks her opponent. I think that is what made her so good against Tasha Humphrey tonight.”
On her taking more shots …
“I just came out to play. My shots were falling so kept taking the shots. Coach (Van Chancellor) kept running the same play because it was working. I just took the shots when they were open.”
On why she was able to make more shots…
“We were running that play the whole game. They weren’t helping us on the screens so Coach (Van Chancellor) called the play and I knocked down the shot. I was confident because I’d hit a couple of shots the first half.”
On how they stopped Georgia’s run…
“That is one thing I can say the team was able to do. We know some teams are going to try to make a run at the game. We just had to take our time, get open shots, and come back and play defense on (Georgia)”
GEORGIA HEAD COACH ANDY LANDERS
Opening statement…
“If you look at it from LSU’s perspective, then I would think that they feel like they played reasonably well and that they made plays when they needed to make plays toward the end of the game. They deserved to win, and I would concur with all of that.
“Our perspective would be that we have a basketball team that’s turned the ball over a good bit. We did it in the first half tonight, and it cost us. We stood, and we didn’t execute. We took some shots. Everyone in the building was going, ?Why is (Angel) Robinson shooting those shots?’ One, because LSU was not guarding her, and two, because her teammates were standing and watching her shoot the ball rather than come and take the ball out of her hands and give her some relief. We just dug ourselves a hole with the way that we executed, turned the ball over and allowed them to get to the offensive boards in the first half. The second half, I thought we were much better. We had what we needed to get back in it. Obviously, we got back in it the easy way with about four threes (3-point shots) as we were coming back, which was a good thing. I think we could have gotten back in it with twos because we were executing reasonably well, but the threes got us back a little quicker. The problem was at about the four or five minute mark when you want to be back it, we were, and we came down three straight times and didn’t score or execute very well. Maybe I should have called a timeout right there to clear the air a little bit and make sure everybody was on the same page.”
On Chancellor’s approach to coaching…
“I think that there’s a much more of an affirmative action approach to offense, an equal rights approach to offense. You can’t argue with the way that it was done, and I certainly wouldn’t argue with the way that it is getting done now. In years past, we always felt like that someone might have said, ?Give the ball to (Seimone) Augustus, and if she can’t shoot it, then she’ll give the ball to (Sylvia) Fowles, and let’s let that be our offense 90 percent of the time.’ I don’t sense that with this team. I see (Quianna) Chaney coming down shooting it early from three, shooting it in transition from three, and quite frankly, I think it makes for a more difficult team to defend. It may not, at the end of the day, make it an efficient team because LSU has been very efficient offensively with their possessions, but at the end of the day, I think it makes them a much more difficult and dangerous team and a team that could do very well in the postseason.”
GEORGIA PLAYER QUOTES
F Tasha Humphrey
On if the game went the way she expected it would…
“Coming into the game, we felt like we knew them pretty well. We knew they had great post players and great perimeter players up and down the line. For the most part, we defended their players well, but we allowed them to be able to get some open looks and I think that cost us.”
On playing against Syliva Fowles…
“Well nothing she does is surprising; we’ve had to play her for four years. I don’t think there’s a player in the country with her athleticism that has her body frame. You know, 19 points is a lot, but it’s Sylvia Fowles, so there isn’t much you can do except just try to contain her.”
G Ashley Houts
On how they were able to get back in the game during the second half…
“In the first half, we kind of got in a hole. We did things better in the second half than we did in the first half. We had fewer turnovers, we hit our shots, we got to the free throw line and we got some offensive boards, but we just couldn’t climb out of the hole we got ourselves into in the first half. We just need to put two good halves together.”