BATON ROUGE — Quianna Chaney missed a potential game-tying three pointer with eight seconds to play, as the No. 6 LSU women’s basketball team lost a thrilling match-up with No. 1-ranked Connecticut, 74-69, on an exciting Monday evening at the Maravich Center.
LSU (23-4, 12-0 SEC) erased a 10-point deficit in the final 10:46 with a 12-0 run but could not expand the lead past two.
Led by freshman Maya Moore’s 29-point effort, UConn (27-1, 13-1 Big East) scored seven-straight after trailing 61-60 to regain the lead for good.
The Lady Tigers stayed close throughout behind the strength of its two offensive leaders, All-America center Sylvia Fowles and the sharp-shooting Chaney.
“We fought back. We got so close, but we could not stop them,” LSU head coach Van Chancellor said. “I am really proud of this LSU team for not folding. This was a tremendous Connecticut team and this game was certainly a good measuring stick for us.”
Chaney bounced back from two sub-par shooting games to score 22 points including 6-of-11 three pointers. She showed signs of cramping in her lower legs for the final eight minutes of the game and received ice treatments during timeouts.
Her hasty heave from deep on the right wing in the final moments bounded harmlessly off the rim and into Moore’s waiting hands.
Fowles sparked the Lady Tigers with 14 first-half points and finished with 26. Her final basket of the game came with 7:22 to play and gave LSU a 59-57 lead.
Fowles finished 8-of-14 from the field and 10-of-13 from the free throw line. She collected 11 rebounds, two steals and two blocked shots.
Moore, a 6-0 guard from Georgia, challenged the Lady Tigers defense throughout with her quick release off the dribble and around screens.
Guarded by just about every Lady Tiger on the floor including 5-7 guard RaShonta LeBlanc for most of the second half, she made 10-of-17 field goal attempts and all seven free throws, while grabbing five rebounds and three steals.
UConn center Tina Charles added 18 points on 9-of-15 shooting with six rebounds. Reserve forward Kaili McLaren posted a double double with 11 points and 12 rebounds.
The Huskies out-rebounded LSU, 39-25, and had 22 second-chance points on 12 offensive rebounds.
UConn finished 30-of-62 shooting (48.4 percent), while LSU was 24-of-54 (44.4 percent).
After a three pointer by Chaney, Thomas tied the game at 8-8 with a jumper at the 14:22 mark.
Leading by two after a tip-in by Fowles, 14-12, UConn rolled off 10-straight points over the next three-plus minutes to extend its advantage to 12, 24-12, with 7:30 to play in the half.
Fowles was able to match her opponents’ physical play in the lane to get LSU back into the game. The 6-6 center hit four-straight free throws and a jumper in the paint to bring the Lady Tigers within six, 24-18.
Chaney and guard RaShonta LeBlanc made consecutive baskets to cut the deficit to four before Moore capped the first half scoring with a three pointer.
LSU trailed 34-28 at the half.
Fowles jumper with 13:43 to play narrowed the gap to two, 45-43, however, UConn answered with an 8-0 run ended with another Moore three pointer.
Down by 10 inside 11 minutes, LSU put together a 12-0 run of its own to electrify the crowd and lead 57-55.
But, UConn kept the ball out of Fowles hands for most of the final seven minutes and the Lady Tigers came up a three pointer short in the end.
A crowd of 9,763 watched the event, the 12th-largest crowd in Lady Tigers’ history.
The Lady Tigers complete their four-game homestand at the Maravich Center on Thursday at 7 p.m. CST when Arkansas comes to town. LSU will honor its eight seniors on the 2007-08 squad at this final regular-season contest.
GAME NOTES
– Sylvia Fowles scored in double figures for the 24th game this season and the 114th game of her career with 26 points tonight. Her 26 points also marks her eighth 20-plus point game this season and her 35th of her career.
– Fowles’ double double tonight (26 Points and 11 rebounds), her 78th of her career, tied former Georgia star Janet Harris for the top spot in career double doubles in SEC history. Fowles has 15 double doubles this season, including five straight.
– Quianna Chaney scored in double figures for the 22nd game this season and the 61st game of her career with 22 points tonight. Her 22 points also marks her fifth 20-plus point game of the season and her ninth of her career.
– The paid attendance of 9,763 is the 12th largest home crowd in LSU women’s history.
– LSU saw its 12-game home court win streak and its 14-game overall win streak snapped with tonight’s loss to UConn.
LSU HEAD COACH VAN CHANCELLOR QUOTES
Opening statement…
“In a game like tonight, as the head coach of LSU I should have found some way to help our team win tonight. We fought back toward the end. We had two fears heading into this game – fast-break points didn’t materialized and second-chance points did. We found a point where we could stop them and then we couldn’t get the defensive rebounds. We just went through some periods where we couldn’t stop them.”
On if he has ever seen a freshman play as well as UConn F Maya Moore played tonight…
“Never in my life. I have been in coaching forever and I don’t think I have ever seen a freshman come into a hostile environment and make shot after shot. She had 29 points and made every free throw. She was their go to player in the end.”
On if he mentioned the Tennessee game when they were down 24-12…
“I didn’t even mention that game. I just talked to them about how we should be playing better and tougher. I thought at that point, we would come roaring back. We can’t have those kinds of droughts and expect to win the game. After that point we scored 57 points, but we can’t have those kinds of droughts and expect to beat great teams. I think they are as good as any team in the country. That is a great measuring stick for us.”
On if he hoped his team had more energy…
“I thought that was part of it. We had to fight so hard to come back and when the score was tied that (lack of energy) showed up in the defensive rebounds.”
On how UConn F Kaili McLaren played…
“Everybody talked about (Tina) Charles and (Maya) Moore and I thought McLaren was the difference maker. I thought she was the difference in the game. She just overpowered us inside.”
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
On if she felt this game was more physical…
“Not in the post, because that is what we face every night. Overall I think they came out and played hard. It seems like they outworked us and it showed.”
On if LSU was worn down…
“I think we are always tired and you can’t expect the posts to do it all. The guards have to get in there and try to rebound, but we did what we can and they beat us on the board. Those are just things you have to work on. This game doesn’t make us or break us but shows us what we need to work on even more.”
On the game…
“You don’t ask for any better. Connecticut is the No. 1 team in the country and they aren’t No. 1 for nothing. When you get out there it is going to be a fight. They took good shots and got rebounds. We took good shots and tried to make a stretch at them. We just kept going back and forth, but I enjoyed it while it lasted.”
On what LSU learned from the game…
“You look for these games just to see where you are as a team. You go up against a lot of people, but there are no other teams out there that have Connecticut’s ability to crash the boards, making transitions and shooting threes in transition. You try to learn from these games that you go along stretching.”
On what LSU is taking away from the game…
“We are going to take it and look at it positively and clean up the things we messed up tonight.”
On Connecticut’s Maya Moore…
“That little woman is awesome. [Maya Moore] is a great player and she has a lot of time to grow. I can just picture her in the next couple of years. She is a great player and she does a lot for Connecticut while she is on the floor. She gets things going for them.”
On the last play of the game…
“I thought the time was almost gone, but I probably could have held the ball and probably got a screen and a better shot instead of wasting that one.”
CONNECTICUT HEAD COACH GENO AURIEMMA
On the win…
“It’s always easier when you can score. You don’t have to worry about where your points are coming from every possession. You’ve got somebody who can make shots and make plays. It does take a lot of pressure off a young player and also give them a little bit of confidence. I think the team that played in the final eight game last year would struggle offensively at times to find where our points would come from, and this year, Maya (Moore) has kind of alleviated a lot that problem. It’s unusual for a freshman to be given that much responsibility, but she’s taken that on herself. It’s not like in the first day of practice we said, ?Look, we need you to try and get 30 (points) every night.’ That wasn’t the point. It’s just kind of played out that way, but we never wanted to be a one-dimensional team. As good as Maya was tonight, and I thought she was phenomenal, Kaili (McLaren) coming off the bench and Ketia Swanier and Tina (Charles), that’s what you need to beat a really good team. You know I said that about Sylvia (Fowles). If Sylvia gets 40 (points) tonight, they could still lose. It’s the other girls on the team that kill you, and I think, hopefully, that’s the way we are. It doesn’t matter how many Maya gets. The other girls need to make plays in order for us to win big games.”
On Kaili McLaren’s play…
“Kaili (McLaren) and Tina (Charles) are their own worst enemies. To me, players are generally as good as they want to be if they have some God-given talent. They’re as good as they want to be. Kaili sometimes wants to be great; sometimes she just settles for being good, and sometimes she’s just ok. Tonight, she played like she wanted to be really good and great at times, and it’s not like she did anything tonight that surprised anybody on our team. We’ve seen her do those things on a regular basis. It’s just you got to get that all the time now. That’s the bad side of being really good. You have to do it every night now.”
CONNECTICUT GUARD MAYA MOORE
On a back and forth second half…
“We knew that they were going to make runs. One of our assistant coaches said earlier, ?That was their run; now let’s get our run.’ I think we all just fed off that. They had their run, and now we had to get our run, and I think Ketia (Swanier) really sparked us with that huge three.”
On seizing the moment and taking the lead for the Huskies…
“I was really proud of my free throws. I thought that was just a great experience. Earlier in the season, I had been struggling getting to the line in general, and I thought that was one way I could contribute. I’m just trying to be there for my team offensively. I made some defensive mistakes that I’m going to try and learn from.”