BATON ROUGE — The 22nd-ranked LSU women’s basketball team gave No. 14 Notre Dame all it could handle on Sunday afternoon, but the Fighting Irish used a 10-0 run down the stretch to defeat the Lady Tigers, 62-53, in the first game of the State Farm Tip-Off Classic at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
LSU (0-1) saw its eight-game winning streak in season-openers come to an end and lost for only the fourth time in the past four-plus seasons at home. LSU honored its 2008 NCAA Final Four appearance prior to the contest by hoisting another banner in the rafters of the building.
“I think we played a great game,” LSU head coach Van Chancellor said. “Notre Dame just did a little better job of executing than LSU. I thought our bench tonight did a great job. I thought Swayze Black did an outstanding job. I thought Courtney Jones and Taylor Turnbow were pretty good as well.”
The Lady Tigers welcomed five new starters and seven true freshmen saw their first career action. Meanwhile, the Irish (1-0) returned a veteran club that featured 2008 All-Big East honorable mention guards Ashley Barlow and Lindsay Schrader.
Barlow led all scorers with 19 points, including 14 points in the second half. LSU was led in scoring by junior Andrea Kelly, who finished with 10 points and was a perfect 6-of-6 from the free throw line.
True freshmen Taylor Turnbow and Courtney Jones each chipped in nine points, and sophomore guard Katherine Graham pulled down a game-high nine rebounds. In all, LSU true freshmen contributed 31 of the Lady Tigers’ 53 points in their first collegiate action.
“I think we will get better,” Chancellor said. “We opened up against a solid team today. This was a real test for a young team to go up against a veteran team. This showed us where we need to work. I thought our inexperience showed up today.”
Both teams shot below 37 percent, and the Irish held a slim advantage on the boards. LSU trailed by as many as nine points in the first half before rallying to tie the score at 24 apiece at halftime. Junior guard Allison Hightower started the comeback with a jumper at the 7:27 mark.
Sophomore guard LaTear Eason then lifted the crowd to its feet when she picked up a steal, buried a jumper to cut the deficit to two while freshman Taylor Turnbow knotted the game at 18 on a turnaround shot. Eason gave the Lady Tigers their first lead at the 4:46 mark in the first half on a running jump shot, 18-16.
However, the Irish responded out of the locker room with a 14-4 run that saw the lead extend to double-digits at 59-48 on a made basket by Barlow with 16:41 remaining. LSU once again sliced into the lead and came as close as three points when Hightower stole a pass at midcourt and drove to the basket for the easy lay-up.
Notre Dame led 43-40 with 9:39 to play, and the Irish put together another run midway through the second half to put the game out of reach with 10 unanswered points. Devereaux Peters and Schrader, who combined for 25 points, contributed eight points in the final 8:02.
The Lady Tigers cut the deficit to under double-digits on a pair of free throws by Kelly, but LSU was held scoreless from the field in the final 2:06 that preserved the Irish victory.
No. 10 Texas A&M (2-0) held off No. 22 Pittsburgh (0-1) in the second game of the doubleheader, 56-50, behind 13 points from Tyra White. A&M’s Damitria Buchanan grabbed 13 rebounds and added nine points.
Pittsburgh’s Shavonte Zellous scored a game-high 23 points and knocked down 14-of-16 from the free throw line. The 14 made free throws were four shy of a Maravich Center record.
The Lady Tigers return to non-conference action on Monday, Nov. 24 as LSU takes on Tulane at 7 p.m. CST in the Maravich Center.
VAN CHANCELLOR AND LSU PLAYER QUOTES
Opening Statement…
“I think we played a great game tonight. Notre Dame just did a little better job of executing than LSU. It’s hard to win a game when your starting lineup is 5 for 28 and commits 12 out of the 18 turnovers. I thought our bench tonight did a great job. I thought Swayze Black did an outstanding job. I thought Courtney Jones wasn’t too bad. Taylor Turnbow was pretty good.”
On the starting lineup…
“Right now we are pretty inconsistent. The players that we put together tonight just didn’t play. We need to find some players that can play. Our lineup will probably change until we get some consistent players. The lineup right now is the least of my worries.”
On the young team…
“I think we will get better. We opened up against a solid team today. This was a real test for a young team to go up against a veteran team. This showed us where we need to work. I thought our inexperience showed up today.”
On how the girls played today…
“I was totally shocked with how we played today. I thought we would have played a lot better than we did. I thought we were ready to play. I felt good about the game and good about where we are. I did not realize that the crowd and the national audience would affect us like it did. I don’t think the two exhibition games helped us to prepare for this game.”
On what went wrong…
“I did not think we played as aggressive as we should have. We lost focus on what we need to do to win the game.”
On the physical ability of the team…
“I think we are a strong team. The physical part has nothing to do with the lost. I think we are a pretty big team. We were just holding ourselves back tonight. We were nervous and it showed on the court.”
On the lost…
“I think we made progress even though we lost today. We definitely experienced college ball and know what to except next time. I thought we were prepared mentally and physically, we now know what we need to work on. Next time we will be better and well prepared.”
On what they did well on…
“I think we gave a good effort. We communicated well on the court. The shots were not falling and we had too many turnovers. We need to be more careful next time.”
NOTRE DAME COACH AND PLAYERS
Head Coach Muffet McGraw
Opening statement …
“We are so excited to get the win for the season opener. LSU is a great team with great rebounding abilities. That is the first thing that we tried to tackle. I thought our veterans played well. They looked poised running down the court and I was happy we were able to maintain the confidence. I think Lindsay (Schrader) and Ashley (Barlow) looked like veteran players today, and that was the key to victory in this game.
On their effectiveness …
“We did a little bit of everything. I thought the zone was very good. We mixed in enough players to keep their point guard off balance. When you are playing a team with a young point guard, the goal is to try to break her rhythm. Our goal was to put some pressure on her. In turn it caused them to take as many as 15 seconds to get down to their side of the court.”
On the physicality of the game …
“We like a physical game. I thought there were a lot of bodies flying at times. We like that. We are trying to be a little more physical than last year, and our inside players definitely did that. LSU is going to be a great team. They are going to struggle just a bit on the road because of their youth. But if they can stay confident, they will be a great team. They have so much talent.
On the atmosphere …
“As a season opener it was a great win. It is great to get a win on the road against a quality program like LSU. I think it gives us a lot of confidence and we learned a lot about our team. It was nice to win a game like this as opposed to opening at home to a team who might not have been very good. This game will really help us in many ways. It is just a win in November right now, but we can learn a lot from it and that makes it a great win.”
G Ashley Barlow
On second half …
“I was going with what Coach (McGraw) said in the locker room about making more shots. In the first half we were trying to get the ball inside. They were really packing it in so we could not hit shots inside. We needed to open it up by shooting and in the second half I took advantage of LSU playing a little off and got in some good shots.”
G Lindsay Schrader
On her leadership abilities …
“Well I am one of the captains on this team, but more importantly our team came out today ready to play. Ashley had a great game today and played tremendously. I know what it feels like to get back on that court for the first time, and everyone had that feeling of excitement.”