BATON ROUGE — Senior forward Kristen Morris scored a career-high 20 points, and the LSU women’s basketball team pulled away from Arkansas in the final 10 minutes of the second half to record a 68-53 win over the Razorbacks on Thursday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
LSU (12-8, 5-3 Southeastern Conference) defeated Arkansas for the 14th straight time dating back to 2003. The Lady Tigers moved into a tie for fifth place in the SEC standings following Georgia’s loss to Tennessee on Thursday night.
Arkansas dropped to 12-11 overall and 1-7 in league play. The Razorbacks remained winless in Baton Rouge since the 1995-96 season.
“We shot 50 percent from the field and 80 percent from the free throw line,” LSU head coach Van Chancellor said. “(Latear) Eason and (Kristen) Morris had great games, and I’m really proud of them. This was a great win. Our defense in the second half was outstanding. We only gave up 21 points (in the second half). I’m really pleased with our team.”
Morris reached the 20-point plateau for the first time in her career, finishing 7-of-11 from the field and 6-of-11 from the free throw line. The senior grabbed five rebounds and blocked two shots in her first start since the season-opener against Notre Dame on Nov. 16.
“She played really well tonight,” Chancellor said of Morris. “She understands what we’re doing and makes a lot of plays. That’s why I had started her in our first game against Notre Dame.”
Sophomore guard Latear Eason also enjoyed a career night with 16 points, three assists and three steals. Eason committed no turnovers in 36 minutes of action and helped lead an LSU offense that shot 50 percent from the floor on 25-of-50 shooting.
The 50 percent effort, LSU’s highest field goal percentage in an SEC game this year, was coupled with a solid night from the free throw line. After struggling for 41 percent from the line against Auburn, LSU responded by burying 80 percent on a 16-of-20 performance.
Junior guard Allison Hightower added 15 points and six boards. LSU’s balanced attack also featured six points apiece from forward LaSondra Barrett and guard Katherine Graham.
Morris and Hightower scored LSU’s first six points of the second stanza and helped the Lady Tigers turn a three-point halftime lead into a seven-point advantage in the first six minutes. Graham converted a Taylor Turnbow assist into points on a bucket, and Morris gave LSU a double-digit margin, 48-36, on a layup at the 12:27 mark.
Barrett had three straight points on a jumper and two free throws, and Morris’ two free throws with 5:26 remaining propelled the Lady Tigers to their biggest lead, 63-47.
LSU held Arkansas to 38.6 percent (22-of-57) from the floor and scored 15 points off 14 Razorback turnovers. Ceira Ricketts led Arkansas with 11 points and six rebounds.
LSU started the game with a 9-0 run in the first three minutes as Hightower made her first shot from the corner and Eason converted a layup. Barrett knocked down a shot from the top of the key and Eason culminated the spurt with her first career 3-pointer with 17:36 to play.
The Lady Razorbacks clawed back into the contest with three 3-pointers in the next four minutes. Ayana Brereton’s 3-point shot at the 13:10 mark cut the lead to 16-13 and Arkansas tied the game minutes later at 19 apiece on a jumper by Charity Ford.
The Lady Razorbacks held a two-point advantage with 2:10 to go in the first stanza, but Eason drained four free throws in the final minute and Hightower made a jumper to give LSU a 35-32 margin into the locker room.
The Lady Tigers travel to Starkville, Miss., to face Mississippi State at 2 p.m. CT Sunday in Humphrey Coliseum. The game will be broadcasted on the LSU Sports Radio Network on 107.3 FM in the Baton Rouge area.
LSU HEAD COACH VAN CHANCELLOR
On the victory…
“We shot 50 percent from the field and 80 percent from the free throw line. (Latear) Eason and (Kristen) Morris had great games, and I’m really proud for them.”
On Kristen Morris…
“She played really well tonight. She understands what we’re doing and makes a lot of plays. That’s why I had started her in our first game against Notre Dame. As I look back on it, I wish I had kept doing that. This was a great win. Our defense in the second half was outstanding. We only gave up 21 points. I’m really pleased with our team.”
On finishing the game strong in the second half…
“We really played well. It was really a great win for our team, and I’m proud of them.”
On playing the veterans down the stretch tonight…
“They are doing well. I’m really pleased with them. They’ve gone through a lot.”
On Latear Eason…
“I think her game was more than solid tonight. I thought she was outstanding. She did a really great job. I’m so proud for her.”
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
On what contributed to her success on offense …
“I try to focus on defense first. I do not focus on how many points I can make. I just want to make sure I can guard whoever they need me to guard and rebound the ball. That is what we need the most.”
On what contributed to the success in shooting …
“We needed to concentrate more. Coach (Chancellor) mentioned the other day how well we shoot in practice, but for some reason we are not carrying that over to the games. We need to focus more on our shots, and that is what we did tonight.”
On if she was ever concerned about her senior season …
“I was never concerned about the season getting away from me. I was more concerned with making sure that the younger players could learn something from me as a veteran. I want them to see what it takes to play here as an upperclassmen. I want them to know that it takes focus, determination and a good work ethic to be successful here.”
On her career night …
“Coach Chancellor just wanted the point guards to step up tonight. He has been trying to tell us for a long time that he wants the guards to play better offense and defense. It is about time that the guards step up and help the team. We were more relaxed tonight and that helped me play a little better.”
On what Coach Chancellor said last time out…
“He told me to relax. He knows what I can do and he gave me a little bit of confidence. The guards have to come together and we all have to contribute. He also said to play with no restrictions.”
On how important it was to start the game with a 9-0 run…
“The way you start the game in the first five minutes and the second half is a big part of winning. We wanted to come out with a lot of energy and play this game for 40 minutes. Sometimes we have a tough time closing out a game.
ARKANSAS HEAD COACH TOM COLLEN
Opening Statement …
“It was a game of two completely contrasting halves. In the first half, LSU came out with the thought in mind of how they were going to control our ball screens. They couldn’t defend them the way they were trying to defend them, but to their credit they made an adjustment in defending and I don’t think we made a good enough adjustment back at times or we failed to execute. It’s a tough loss; I don’t think player for player they’re any more talented than we are. I look at the stat sheet and I think we went to the free throw line six times and they went 20 times; that’s really hard for us to make up that difference. We had 11 offensive rebounds on the boards, but we only had three players get to an offensive rebound. We shot 38 percent from the field, so we missed our share of shots and we had our starting post players each get only one offensive rebound and a back-up post player get one, so we got no offensive rebounds from our wings and we were sending four to the boards. We’re a team that needs more possessions because we’re not a high percentage shooting team. I think looking back at it, that’s where we got beat.”
On the similarities between this game and the game earlier in the year at Arkansas …
“Our team has gone through this before. We’re really young at the guard spot and I think when teams make adjustments to us we’ve got to be able to make adjustments back. I think as a staff we adjusted back to them, we just failed to execute it. To LSU’s credit offensively, I think they were pretty efficient in the second half and they scored on us on the inside. Certainly it comes down to adjustments and Van (Chancellor) has been around a long time and he does a good job with it.”