BATON ROUGE — Auburn rallied from a seven-point deficit in the final two minutes of regulation and then survived a potential game-tying shot attempt from LSU in overtime to stun the 11th-ranked Lady Tigers and snap their winning streak by a score of 64-62 at Pack the PMAC 14 on Sunday in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
LSU (13-2, 2-1 SEC) saw its winning streak end at four games, while its Southeastern Conference regular season winning streak was snapped at seven games. The Lady Tigers had not lost a league game since falling at Mississippi State on Feb. 8, 2009.
Auburn, the defending SEC champion, entered Sunday’s game having lost three straight games, including an 0-2 start to SEC play. The Tigers played their second overtime game in as many contests and this time came out on the winning end to improve to 10-6 overall and 1-2 in conference play.
“Giving up 41 points in the second-half, that is my fault,” said LSU head coach Van Chancellor. “Giving up 14 offensive rebounds, that is my fault. This is one of the toughest regular season losses I have ever been through. I thought we had it won at one time. I didn’t take it for granted. All we had to do was execute.”
LSU sophomore forward LaSondra Barrett led all scorers with a career-high-tying 27 points and 10 rebounds. Barrett registered her second double-double of the season and fourth of her career. Her 27 points tied her previous best of 27 at Arkansas in her SEC debut last season.
Senior guard Allison Hightower added nine points but saw a streak of 12 consecutive double-figure scoring games come to an end. Hightower missed seven minutes of the second half and the final two minutes of overtime due to leg cramping.
LSU held a 55-48 lead with 2:14 left in regulation following a Hightower 3-pointer. Barrett’s jumper at the 1:33 mark maintained the seven-point advantage before Auburn mounted a 9-2 run to send the game into overtime.
KeKe Carrier, a Lake Charles native who had 14 points, rallied with two straight layups. Morgan Toles’ driving layup pulled Auburn to within a point, 57-56, with 0:15 to go. After a pair of Katherine Graham free throws and a timeout, Auburn’s Alli Smalley drained a 3-pointer from the left wing with two defenders on her to knot the game at 59 all and 0:04 on the clock.
Hightower’s halfcourt heave nearly went in but bounced off the back iron as time expired to send the game into overtime. LSU, playing its second overtime game of the season, opened the scoring on a Destini Hughes floater in the paint, but Auburn rallied with four straight on jumpers from Toles and Jordan Greenleaf.
Auburn held its first lead since the 13:41 mark of the second half, 63-61, with 1:59 left in overtime. Hightower then left with cramps and the teams traded free throws before LSU would have one final shot to tie or win the game.
Following a timeout, Hughes drove through the lane for a perfect look at the basket but her potential game-tying layup missed off the side of the rim with 0:02 on the clock as the Lady Tigers went the final 4:53 without a field goal.
“That was the play we called,” Chancellor said. “I didn’t think they could guard her, we spread the floor and got a wide open layup.”
Toles finished with 17 points and four assists to lead Auburn, who outshot LSU 47.5 percent to 37.3 percent for the game. Auburn also dominated the boards by a 46-34 margin against one of the league’s premier rebounding teams.
LSU was held to 26.7 percent from the floor in the first half and trailed 22-18 into the locker room. Auburn led by as many as six points in the first period before LSU regained the lead midway through the second half.
The Lady Tigers travel to Ole Miss to face the Rebels next Sunday at 2 p.m. CST. The game will be televised by Comcast Sports Southeast. Live streaming audio will be available to members of the Geaux Zone on www.LSUsports.net.
LSU vs. Auburn
January 10, 2010
HEAD COACH VAN CHANCELLOR
Opening Statement …
“This one is all on me. Giving up 41 points in the second-half, that is my fault. Giving up 14 offensive rebounds, that is my fault. This is one of the toughest regular season losses I have ever been through. I thought we had it won at one time. I didn’t take it for granted, all we had to do was execute. It is my fault. We had a three-point lead and the ball out of bounds, we should have thrown the ball into LaSondra Barrett because she hadn’t missed a free-throw all day.”
On Allison Hightower‘s injury …
“She has had a little cramping problem that returned for the first time today, but that is not an excuse. It bothered her throughout the game.”
On the play of Destini Hughes …
“I thought she was outstanding. We couldn’t stop Morgan Toles, and when she was in the game she stopped her.”
On the play of Auburn center KeKe Carrier …
“She was really good. We thought she would do about what she did, that wasn’t what beat us. If you can’t defend a three-ball with a three-point lead, I don’t care if they are 102 feet from the basket, you have to be out there. That is bad, pitiful coaching.”
On the missed layup by Destini Hughes at the end of the game …
“That was the play we called. I didn’t think they could guard her, we spread the floor and got a wide open layup.”
On how hard it is to have a week off between games …
“That is hard on me to have a week off. I wish we were playing tomorrow night. I have no idea what we are going to do during that week, but we are going to do something to get us better. We had the best zone offensive preparation that I have seen us have here. We attacked this zone today like we had never seen one. We played tentative.
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
Forward LaSondra Barrett
On what allowed her to score 27 points tonight…
“I felt we had mismatches, especially when they put Carrier guarding me, or some of their post players. We’re a little more athletic than them. It’s not just me; it was open all night and I just took advantage of it. The coaches really told me to get in the gaps of the zone, the weak spots of the zone. I felt pretty good shooting the ball tonight.”
On losing at home…
“I really just want to apologize to our entire fans. Losing, it hurts. It really hurts. I don’t think I’m going to be able to sleep tonight after this loss. I just hate that we let them down. Give credit to Auburn. They made plays too, but this wasn’t LSU. We need to learn how to finish games out, rely on each other more, and pull games through because we’re going to face teams a lot tougher than Auburn. Just to lose at home, it’s the most frustrating thing.”
On using the next week in between games to improve…
“I think we need to get in the gym and work on a couple of things. The SEC season is tough. We need all the practice and the reps that we can get. We’ve got to clean some stuff up at practice.”
Guard Destini Hughes
On Coach Chancellor taking responsibility for the loss…
“It was definitely a team loss. There’s no one to blame. The coaches, the teammates, there’s no individual (solely to blame). As a team, we didn’t get the rebounds that we needed to get, and as a team we missed some easy shots. I know me, personally, I missed some easy shots. It’s not Coach (Chancellor). It’s the team. We’ve just got to pull together more and buckle down.”
On missing a layup to force double overtime…
“No, I just missed it. That’s no excuse. I wasn’t too open, not too open, and I should have made it. Next time I get the opportunity, hopefully it will go in.”
AUBURN HEAD COACH NELL FORTNER
Opening Statement …
“It’s a lot more fun to win an overtime game than to lose one. I thought that we showed a tremendous amount of resolve today to play hard and not really worry about the score and just be concerned with our effort. It really paid off for us. That loss at Florida was really tough. It was a double-overtime loss and was really hard. To be able to come here and win one in overtime is really special. I thought Alli Smalley hit some big shots today. I thought KeKe Carrier came in and did some nice damage inside; she’s a tough player to guard, and I thought she held her own today. I’m just really proud of our team.”
On the thought heading into overtime …
“We were just happy to be in overtime because we had to come back and fight to get to that. We were just thinking about five more minutes. It was all about making stops, and we did that. We weren’t thinking about anything other than playing hard for five minutes and winning the game.”
On what they took from a double overtime loss to Florida last week …
“It helped us be a better team today because it taught us how hard we have to play and how well we have to execute. We’re limited right now; we have a limited number of players. We have four freshmen out of eight players so we’re limited. We have to do some things; we have to play smart and be tough and the effort has to be extreme. I think we got all of that today.”
On Alli Smalley’s three-point shot to send the game to overtime …
“What a shot. That was a big-time shot. It was a play designed for her to get the shot. I was hoping she’d be a little more open, but she zeroed in on that shot. I could’ve touched her she was so far outside the three (point line). That thing was right on line. What a beautiful thing to watch that ball go through the net. That was nice.”
On KeKe Carrier and winning the rebounding battle …
“When KeKe is in the game we like to get her the ball because she is a difficult player to match-up with. It is a big part of our plan for her to touch the ball when she’s in the game. I thought we did a great job on the boards tonight. Parrisha Simmons came in and got eight or nine big boards. It was important to win the rebounding battle because LSU is a good rebounding team. I was pleased with that effort.”