BATON ROUGE ? Freshman forward LaSondra Barrett scored 11 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, but it was LSU’s stifling defense that gave the Lady Tiger basketball team a 51-41 victory over rival Louisiana Tech on Monday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
LSU (3-3) evened its record and won its second straight game after returning to the court for the first time in 14 days for final exams. The Lady Techsters (5-5) saw their three-game winning streak come to an end and lost for the fourth consecutive time to LSU.
For the first time since 1990, LSU and Louisiana Tech met in Baton Rouge, and what resulted was a contest where points were hard to come by. LSU held the Lady Techsters to 22.2 percent shooting in the first half and 27.1 percent for the game while forcing 18 turnovers and blocking nine shots.
“From an offensive point of view, a young team is going to struggle a little bit and we struggled a little bit,” LSU head coach Van Chancellor said. “But this is a great win for the team. They really needed this and this will be good for them. Louisiana Tech has really hurt a lot of people on the offensive boards and we didn’t give that up tonight ? only seven points for them there. That was really big for us. That was one of our goals: not to give up a lot of offensive rebounds.”
Tech forward Shanavia Dowdell did manage 12 points and 10 rebounds. But the Lady Tigers shutdown guard Whitney Jones, who finished with five points, nine points below her season average without making a 3-pointer in the contest.
“I thought (associate head) coach Bob Starkey had a great defensive plan today,” Chancellor said. “He’s the one that designed what we were going to do against Louisiana Tech. I thought we played well; we held them to 20-something percent shooting, they didn’t make many three-pointers and the few shots they made in the second half was part of our plan ? we wanted to give those up in he first place.
Meanwhile, LSU got an inspiring effort from junior guard Allison Hightower after she finished with 13 points, six rebounds two blocks and two steals. Hightower, who was battling cramps in her left leg in the second half, still managed to score in double-figures for the fourth time this season.
Sophomore guard Katherine Graham added nine rebounds, and freshman forward Courtney Jones contributed nine points and four boards in 28 minutes of action. LSU outrebounded Tech, 44-36.
LSU held its biggest margin of the game, 42-18, with 12:24 to go before Louisiana Tech mounted a comeback. The Lady Techsters trimmed the lead to under double-digits with a 13-0 run midway through the second half.
Dowdell and Adrienne Johnson made consecutive shots from beyond the arc, and Tech came within nine points at the 1:17 mark on another three from Tiawana Pringle. However, the early deficit and sluggish start to the second half proved to be too much to overcome.
LSU opened the half with an 11-1 run of its own and held the Lady Techsters scoreless from the field for nearly eight minutes until the 11:54 mark in the second half. Sophomore guard Latear Eason gave LSU a 44-20 lead on a 3-pointer from the left wing with 10:22 to play.
Tech managed only six field goals in the first half while the Lady Tigers shot 41.7 percent from the floor in the first 20 minutes. Barrett scored all 11 of her points in the first half en route to her first career double-double.
After Tech’s Tiawana Pringle drained a 3-pointer for the game’s first score, LSU rattled off 11 unanswered points to claim an 11-3 lead. Barrett had a jumper from the top of the key, and Hightower buried her second 3-pointer of the season from the base line.
LSU tacked on an 8-0 spurt later in the period and Hightower’s left-handed runner prior to the horn sounding lifted the Lady Tigers to a comfortable 28-13 halftime lead.
LSU seeks its third straight win at 7 p.m. Thursday against Southeastern Louisiana in the Maravich Center.
LSU HEAD COACH VAN CHANCELLOR
Opening Statement…
“I thought coach Bob Starkey had a great defensive plan today. He’s the one that designed what we were going to do against Louisiana Tech. I thought we played well; we held them to twenty-something percent shooting, they didn’t make many three-pointers and the few shots they made in the second half was part of our plan ? we wanted to give those up in he first place.
“From an offensive point of view, a young team is going to struggle a little bit and we struggled a little bit. But this is a great win for the team. They really needed this and this will be good for them. Louisiana Tech has really hurt a lot of people on the offensive boards and we didn’t give that up tonight ? only seven points for them there. That was really big for us. That was one of our goals: not to give up a lot of offensive rebounds.”
On how his team ran their offensive set plays…
“We ran our offensive sets tonight like we wanted to, but our decisions at the end of the play were not anything to write home to mom about. Our decisions there lacked a little bit. I would want the ball to go one place and it would go another. I called a timeout with a 14-point lead and told them three times to be really patient and move the ball around and the next person that touched it shot it. They said ‘Well coach, I was wide open, what do you want me to do?’ Well, I had an answer for that. I said ‘Make the thing.’ “
On what the LSU-Louisiana Tech rivalry means in the state of Louisiana…
“You have to understand something, I was a high school coach, a college coach and a professional coach. I know about this rivalry. Just because I lived in Mississippi doesn’t mean I don’t know about the rivalry between LSU and Louisiana Tech. It feels good to be the LSU coach and win it. I’ve been in one of these rivalries. I beat Mississippi State about 30 times, I know what it’s like to be in one. A lot of people in this state may not keep up with your team, but they’re going to know about this game. Don’t kid yourself. If you care about women’s basketball you know about the rivalry. It feels good to win two in a row, especially the way we won it today. Our defense reminded me of last year’s defense.”
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
On injuries during game…
“I caught a couple of cramps. It was both of my hamstrings, so it was kind of hard to move.”
On what victory means to team…
“It feels really good to get a victory. We have been working hard for two weeks with strength practicing, running and everything, so it feels really good to get the victory. We have to build off of what we did today and take it to Thursday and continue to improve.”
On improvements during practice…
“We just tried to stay together as much as we could. We had hard times, and we had good times. There has been an improvement every day in practice.”
On translation on court from practices…
“The coaches have really been stressing us with running plays and playing with effort for 40 minutes Playing with that passion that we’ve been missing. Rebounding the ball. We’ve been taking what they have told us and putting it on the court.
On state rivalry with LA Tech…
“It’s good for women’s basketball. Louisiana Tech was good a long time ago and so are we. It’s good to have that in-state rivalry.
On coaches’ frustration during game…
“It makes us want to play until we do it right and do what exactly what he says.”
On injuries during game…
“I took a hard fall and got the wind knocked out of me.”
On LA Tech’s run late in the second half…
“I wasn’t worried because we were making a lot of shots. We just had a dead period. I knew we would bounce back. Allison was out of the game, and there were a couple of shots that didn’t bounce in that I should have made. I knew that if we kept playing hard we would win.”
LOUISIANA TECH HEAD COACH CHRIS LONG
Opening Statement …
“LSU made plays early in the game. I thought they defended well. I felt like this was a game we could come in and win. We did not do what we needed to do offensively early on; I thought we took quick shots. We had not seen LSU on film sack the paint like they did tonight. They did a nice job of closing out when we reversed the basketball and they caused us problems. You hold LSU to 51 points on their home court you feel like your chances are pretty good, but offensively we didn’t get it done. LSU made plays and I give them credit.”
On not playing in Baton Rouge since 1990 …
“We’re trying to continue the series. We went to New Orleans three years ago, LSU came to Ruston last year and Coach Chancellor and I started a new two game series and this was the first game of that. They’ll come up to Ruston next year and then we’ll see.”
On Louisiana Tech’s offense in the second half …
“We were more patient. We got some defensive stops and a couple of baskets in transition and got the momentum. I thought we boxed out better out of the zone than we had anytime this year. I thought we were more patient. I thought we worked harder to get the ball off the block. I thought our guards did a nice job of penetrating.”