NASHVILLE, Tenn. — SEC Player of the Year Sylvia Fowles and “x-factor” forward Ashley Thomas each totaled double doubles on Saturday, as the top-seeded LSU women’s basketball team advanced to the SEC Tournament Championship game for the fourth-straight season, 66-49, over No. 4-seed Kentucky.
LSU (27-4), which has lost each of the past three title games, will face No. 2-seed Tennessee which beat No. 3-seed Vanderbilt, 63-48, in the second semifinal Saturday.
The championship game will be held at 6:30 p.m. CDT on Sunday. Fans are reminded to “spring forward” tonight as daylight saving time begins at 2 a.m.
Regular-season champion LSU will make its eighth tournament title game appearance and plays for its third championship in school history. LSU won in 1991 and 2003, both over Tennessee.
Kentucky (15-15) was held to 31.1 percent shooting (19-61), their second-lowest output of the season. The Wildcats await their postseason future.
“I have to give a lot of credit to Kentucky tonight,” LSU head coach Van Chancellor said. “They had a good game plan against us, but we were able to knock some shots down and had success at the free throw line.”
Fowles finished 6-of-9 from the field and 8-of-9 from the free-throw line for 20 points and 13 rebounds. Super shooter Quianna Chaney was 7-of-10 from the field, using dribble penetration to score most of her points inside the three-point arc. She finished with 18 points and four assists in 38 minutes.
Thomas grabbed eight offensive rebounds and scored 10 of her 11 points in the first half for her first career double double in 114 games. She took a career-high 17 shots and had 11 rebounds.
Point guard Erica White had eight points and three assists. Mesha Williams came off the bench to collect six rebounds, as the Lady Tigers overcame an early rebounding deficit to out-rebound Kentucky, 44-34.
LSU was 25-of-51 from the field (49 percent) and made 15-of-22 free throws. Kentucky made only 8-of-20 free throws.
Though Kentucky guard Samantha Mahoney found herself as the only offensive option on the floor at some points of the first half, she led the Wildcats with 17 points. She was 7-of-16 from the field.
Wildcats 6-6 center Sarah Elliott was 5-of-15 shooting for 12 points. However, she played only 20 minutes due to foul trouble and had only three rebounds.
As Kentucky sagged into the paint to prevent Fowles from getting touches, Thomas scored 10 points in the first half on 5-of-10 shooting.
Meanwhile, with Kentucky’s four post players each collecting two first half fouls, Fowles hit all eight first-half free-throw attempts and scored 14 before the break.
LSU built a 16-9 lead on a three-point play by Fowles with 10:55 to play in the half and led by as many as 13 when Chaney made all three free throws for a 37-24 advantage with just more than a minute left before halftime.
With Fowles on the bench, Kentucky scored the half’s final basket and trailed 37-26 at halftime.
The Lady Tigers pushed the margin to 17, 51-34, by making 5-of-6 shots in a stretch of 3:41.
Kentucky wasn’t able to get within 13 for the duration, though the Wildcats never stopped putting pressure on the Lady Tigers defense.
GAME NOTES
– Sylvia Fowles scored in double figures for the 28th game this season and the 118th game of her career with 20 points tonight. She reached 20-plus points for the 10th game this season and the 37th game of her career.
– Sylvia Fowles recorded her 18th double double of the season and the 81st of her career with 20 points and 13 rebounds tonight.
– Quianna Chaney scored in double figures for the 25th game this season and the 64th game of her career with 18 points tonight.
– Ashley Thomas scored a season-high 11 points in tonight’s game and reached double figures for the sixth game this season and the 16th game of her career with 11 points tonight.
– Ashley Thomas recorded her first career double double with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
– LSU advanced to the championship game of the SEC Tournament for the fourth straight season and the eighth time overall. LSU improved to 8-5 in semifinal game in the SEC Tournament.