BATON ROUGE — In front of an enthusiastic Maravich Center crowd filled with pink, the LSU women’s basketball team recorded the elusive signature victory it had been looking for. Junior guard Allison Hightower led all scorers with 21 points, and LSU held Florida to 32 percent shooting to topple the No. 9 Gators, 66-47, on Sunday at Pack the PMAC 13.
A paid crowd of 5,578 fans honored breast cancer awareness as part of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s Pink Zone Challenge on Sunday. LSU recognized approximately 60 breast cancer survivors prior to the game in a special “Parade of Survivors.” Fans donned pink attire to honor the cause while the team wore special Nike uniforms trimmed in pink.
The Lady Tigers (13-9, 6-4 Southeastern Conference) picked up their first victory of the season over a ranked opponent in six tries. LSU won its seventh straight Pack the PMAC game and defeated Florida for the ninth time in the last 10 meetings.
“Today was a signature win,” LSU head coach Van Chancellor said. “We beat the No. 9 team in the country. This a great win for us and a great win for the team and our spirits. We beat a really good team by 19 points.”
“The crowd today was unbelievable. There was so much enthusiasm, and it really helped our team today. It was great to see all of the pink in the crowd. I thank all of the fans for their support.”
The Gators (22-4, 8-3) dropped their second consecutive game ? their first losing streak of the season ? and fell for the sixth straight time in Baton Rouge. Florida came into the contest ranked ninth in the Associated Press poll and 11th in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches.
LSU forced the Gators into 20 turnovers while racking up seven blocks and 14 steals, including a career-high five steals from Hightower. The Lady Tigers’ smothering defense held Florida to a season-low 32.1 percent (17-of-53) from the field. The Gators, who averaged 75.7 points per game, finished with their lowest point total of the season and managed just 1-of-12 shots from 3-point land.
Hightower was spectacular and played nearly the entire contest before being lifted by Chancellor to a standing ovation in the final minute. She finished 9-of-20 from the floor and reached double-figures for the 10th straight game.
Senior forward Kristen Morris chipped in nine points and eight rebounds to go along with three steals. Sophomore guard Latear Eason dished out a career-high six assists and held in check All-SEC guard Sha Brooks for most of the game.
“We won the game with a great defensive plan,” Chancellor added. “Allison Hightower was unbelievable ? steals, rebounds, defense and only one turnover. She made almost half of her shots. I thought Latear Eason did an outstanding job on a tremendous guard in (Sha) Brooks.”
Brooks scored 12 points ? eight points below her SEC average ? while senior forward Marshae Dotson led the Gators with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
A 14-0 LSU run in the first 10 minutes of the game energized the crowd and gave the Lady Tigers’ a comfortable advantage from the start. Florida missed 11 of their first 12 shots and went 10 minutes without a field goal in the first half.
During the spurt, Hightower and Morris knocked down jumpers. Junior guard Andrea Kelly picked up where she left off last game with a 3-pointer and a jumper to give LSU a 15-2 lead with 11:36 in the first half.
Brooks finally got the Gators back on the board with a free throw at the 9:22 mark. Lonnika Thompson’s bucket with 8:56 to go was Florida’s first field goal since the 19:14 point when the game was tied at two apiece.
LSU led by as many as 16 points in the first stanza following another Kelly 3-pointer that made it 23-7 in favor of the Lady Tigers with 7:39 remaining. LSU took a 27-16 advantage into the locker room.
Florida cut the lead to eight points on two occasions in the first 10 minutes of the second half. Brooks’ layup at the 12:31 mark made it a 39-31 contest, but the Lady Tigers responded with six straight points to take control again.
Morris had a jumper during the run and forced a steal that led to an Eason layup, which gave the Lady Tigers a 45-31 margin with 10:26 to go. Hightower delivered with another steal and went the length of the floor for a layup that ultimately put the game out of reach, 52-38, with 5:02 to go.
Florida could get no closer than 11 points and never managed to climb within single digits. LSU held its biggest lead, 66-47, following an Ayana Dunning layup and free throw in the final minute that accounted for the final margin.
The Lady Tigers finished 48.1 percent (26-of-54) from the floor and dished out 15 assists to Florida’s four.
LSU seeks to carry its momentum into a road game at Georgia on Thursday from Stegeman Coliseum. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. CST.
LSU HEAD COACH VAN CHANCELLOR
Opening statement…
“I’m going to give credit where credit’s due. If you give (associate head coach) Bob Starkey a week to prepare for a game, he’s hard to beat. Bob did a great job of coming up with a plan. The plan was to try to keep (Sha) Brooks from getting to the rack at all times. We tried to double (Marshae) Dotson. That didn’t work very well. We had a great plan. We followed it. Florida has never scored less than 61 points all year. We gave up 47. I’m really pleased on how we played on offense. We won the game with a great defensive plan. Allison Hightower was unbelievable ? steals, rebounds, defense and only one turnover. She made almost half of her shots. I thought Latear Eason did an outstanding job on a tremendous guard in (Sha) Brooks.”
On keeping (Sha) Brooks away from the basket…
“We tried to run Brooks into the screen and take the person setting the screen to come up and almost trap her. We thought we had to make her give up the ball or we couldn’t win. She’s that good.”
On today’s signature win…
“Today was a signature win. We beat the No. 9 team in the country. This a great win for us. A great win for t he team, our spirits. We beat a really good team by 19 points.”
On playing for 40 minutes…
“Our whole motivation was 40 minutes right now. We have to play right this second. Our problem has been not coming out with enough energy. We come out ahead at half time, and we let the team make a few baskets. Then their spirits are high.”
On today’s game’s atmosphere…
“The crowd today was unbelievable. There was so much enthusiasm, and it really helped our team today. It was great to see all of the pink in the crowd.”
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
Guard Allison Hightower
On what kind of message this win sends to the NCAA Tournament committee…
“I think we are a team to look out for. We’ve lost some close ones here, and it feels good to finally get a big one like this today.”
On LSU’s defense…
“I think we were aggressive to start off with. Coach Chancellor told us to play with no fear, and that’s exactly what we did. We also had a pretty good week of practice to prepare for this, so that really helped us out a lot.”
Forward Kristen Morris
On if this was a signature win…
“I think so. We’ve been fighting and anxious for one of these wins for a long time. It was just good to catch a win, and now, we just want to play off this momentum before we go to Georgia and just carry it on through the rest of the season.”
On playing aggressive defense…
“I know for me personally, those two post players for Florida were very aggressive, so I just wanted to set the tone early, get myself established, rebound and open the floor up for other rebounds and long rebounds and just play aggressive.”
Guard Latear Eason
On the energy of Maravich Center…
“It was amazing. The fans were great. It was just a special day to come out and play and get a big victory. We’ve been practicing hard all week, and we just feel like we deserved to come out and beat this team. We practiced really hard, and it was time for us to get the job done.”
On playing defense against Sha Brooks…
“I had been hearing about (Sha) Brooks all week, so I just wanted to come in here today and just stop her. I knew that she was a big factor in them winning some big games this year, so I knew I had to stop her to help the team.”
FLORIDA HEAD COACH AMANDA BUTLER
Opening Statement …
“LSU played great. I think on some nights we’re one of the best offensive teams in the conference and (LSU) has proven they’re the best defensive team in the conference and defense won. In this conference, going and playing on someone else’s home court is the toughest thing that we do and we really weren’t ready for that challenge today.”
On LSU’s defense …
“I think they did a really good job of doubling on the low blocks and they did some things that weren’t really surprises, but they just did them very well. When it comes down to it one team is going to impose their style on the other team and the game is going to be won or lost in that feeling of whose style is going to be imposed, but also in details and I thought we lost in both regards. We weren’t a good detail basketball team. Like I said, LSU imposed everything they wanted to on us.”
On LSU’s offense …
“We played an average defensive game, not a horrible defensive game, but I don’t think we’re doing a good job of taking away personnel strengths. (Andrea) Kelly is the only kid on their team that consistently shoots and we left her open a few times. It was frustrating when we let (Allison) Hightower get to the basket with her left hand. A level of awareness doesn’t seem to be as heightened.”