NEW ORLEANS — Freshman LaSondra Barrett scored a game-high 21 points, including 15 in the first half, and the LSU women’s basketball team used a balance attack to defeat New Orleans, 67-48, on Wednesday night at Lakefront Arena.
The Lady Tigers (9-5) won for the eighth time in the past 10 games and extended its winning streak over in-state opponents to 27 games. Nine LSU players scored on a combined 16 assists. Freshman Courtney Jones came off the bench with 14 points and junior guard Allison Hightower had 15 points on 7-of-12 shooting.
Hightower chipped in four assists in the first half and finished with two blocks and two steals. Both Jones and Barrett grabbed a game-high eight rebounds.
“I thought we played well offensively,” LSU head coach Van Chancellor said. “I liked the way we are executing and we are rebounding the ball well. Our team has really grasped what we are trying to do offensively and we are getting better every game.”
LSU held its largest lead, 56-32, on a pair of free throws from freshman Taylor Turnbow with 10:04 left in the game. The two shots culminated a 12-0 run the featured two jumpers from Hightower.
UNO (8-9) then went on a run of its own and came as close as 56-45 with 13 unanswered points. Ty Felder knocked down two 3-pointers and Jada Frazier made one at the 7:08 mark. LSU pulled away in the final five minutes on a pair of baskets from Barrett and a jumper from Hightower.
Barrett, the SEC Freshman of the Week, finished 10-of-19 from the field and scored 15 points in the first half. She knocked down LSU’s first 11 points to give the Lady Tigers an 11-7 lead. Jones responded with nine points in the first half. Her jumper at the 9:30 mark pushed LSU’s advantage to 24-10.
UNO’s Brittany Helm cut the lead to under double-digits on a 3-pointer with 4:10 to go in the first half that made it 30-22. However, LSU’s Andrea Kelly came off the bench and drained a baseline 3-pointer of her own in the final minute after Hightower scored that gave the Lady Tigers its biggest lead, 39-23.
LSU held the Privateers to 32.7 percent shooting for the game while the Lady Tigers finished 45.8 percent from the field.
LSU resumes Southeastern Conference play at 2 p.m. CST Sunday as the Lady Tigers travel to face 18th-ranked Vanderbilt in Nashville.