BATON ROUGE — Sophomore forward Courtney Jones scored a career-high 22 points and junior guard Katherine Graham finished two assists shy of another triple-double as the 20th-ranked LSU women’s basketball team completed a season sweep of Arkansas by a score of 70-53 on Thursday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The Lady Tigers (19-8, 8-7 Southeastern Conference) improved their NCAA Tournament resume with their fourth win in their past five games while remaining in a tie for fifth place in the SEC standings with Georgia, who was a 65-49 at South Carolina on Thursday night.
For LSU to earn a first round bye in next week’s SEC Tournament, the Lady Tigers must win their season-finale and hope for a Vanderbilt or Georgia loss on Sunday.
LSU closes its regular season at home against Mississippi State at 2 p.m. CST Sunday. The Lady Bulldogs are in a tie for third place with Vanderbilt in the standings. Sunday will be “Senior Day” for Allison Hightower, who plays her final game in the Maravich Center.
“I thought this was a great win for us,” LSU head coach Van Chancellor said. “I thought Courtney Jones and Katherine Graham were outstanding. Graham almost had another triple- double. I started to put her back, but as a pro-coach I got Tina Thompson hurt by putting her back in so that scared me to death, so I just went against it. I thought Graham is just igniting us lately and Jones was just unbelievable with 22 points and five rebounds.”
Arkansas (12-16, 4-11) dropped its 16th consecutive game to LSU dating back to 2003. It was also the Razorbacks’ 14th straight loss in Baton Rouge as they remained winless in the Maravich Center since 1996.
Jones was one of three Lady Tigers who tallied double-figures, finishing 8-of-9 from the floor and besting her previous career-high of 16 points last season against Arkansas. The sophomore entered Thursday’s game with three 3-pointers all season, but she knocked down 4-of-4 treys for LSU who finished 5-of-16 beyond the arc on the night.
Graham recorded her third double-double of the season with 15 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists, two shy of her second triple-double. Hightower added 12 points and eight boards for her 12th straight double-figure scoring game.
LSU wasted little time in separating the score with a 9-0 run highlighted by five straight points from Graham and a Hightower 3-ball from the left wing that extended the lead to double-digits, 15-5. Jones then got into the act midway through the first half scoring eight straight for the Lady Tigers on a pair of free throws and back-to-back 3-pointers.
The lead grew to 17 when the combination of Hightower and LaSondra Barrett wore down the Razorbacks. Hightower flipped in a jumper and Barrett added one of her own for LSU, who led 37-22 at halftime.
Jones fired in her third 3-pointer from the top of the key that gave LSU 50 points and a 16-point advantage with 13:27 remaining in the second half. Taylor Turnbow got into the scoring act with a layup and Jones remained from perfect from 3-point range with yet another trey at the 10:57 mark that extended the lead to 55-36.
Jones scored LSU’s final points of the night with a layup, and Hightower’s layup gave the Lady Tigers their largest lead, 68-45, with 3:20 to go. LSU finished 50 percent from the floor and racked up 21 second-chance points with tremendous effort.
Arkansas was led by Charity Ford and Lyndsay Harris, who contributed 11 points apiece.
LSU HEAD COACH VAN CHANCELLOR
Opening Statement …
“I thought this was a great win for us. I thought Courtney Jones and Katherine Graham were outstanding. Graham almost had another triple double. I started to put her back, but as a pro-coach I got Tina Thompson hurt by putting her back in so that scared me to death, so I just went against it. I thought Graham is just igniting us lately and Jones was just unbelievable with 22 points and five rebounds. I will tell you what I like about Courtney Jones. After the game she told me ‘Coach I really let us down, I gave up two three-balls tonight.’ I thought to myself if you score 22 points you can give up a couple three-balls because you are a little bit ahead. If you would have told me we would win by 20 without Hightower and Barrett putting up big numbers that is a big plus for us. I was really concerned coming into the game because this team as freshman had beaten Arkansas twice really good. They had beaten them over there early in the year really good and I just wanted to make sure we respected what they were doing lately.”
On why Courtney Jones played so well tonight …
“I told her she needs to start shooting the ball or she will be sitting next to me. I think she wanted to shoot the ball. She has been a player I have been struggling to get to want to shoot the ball. She wants to go pass and go do this-or-that, you have to want to shoot the ball. Courtney Jones might be too sweet a girl. She is one of the sweetest human beings I have ever coached. I hope this is a big eye-opener for her tonight. “
On the importance of the win …
“This is a big game for us. We just needed to get the eighth conference wins. I don’t care how you slice it up. Why is this game so big? You used to have to have seven conference wins, now you really need to have eight conference wins to make the (NCAA) tournament. That is why I thought this game was big.”
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
Forward Courtney Jones
On what enabled her to have such a great shooting night…
“The coaches always tell me just to relax. Sometimes I’m going faster than my brain. I just go out and do my part – just screen, get Allison, KG (Katherine Graham), and Boogie (LaSondra Barrett) open, just play hard defense and follow the scouting report.”
On if she considers this a career night…
“No, I definitely let up a lot of times on defense. I didn’t do my part on a lot of possessions, so it was (only) OK for me. The threes, I was just shooting it. I wasn’t really thinking it would go in.”
On the team’s mindset after winning four out of five games…
“It’s very important that we come out with energy and excitement and just get ready for the opponent and never take anyone too easy, play everybody the same.”
Guard Katherine Graham
On if she’s upset about just missing a triple-double…
“No, not really. I mean… no. I’m glad we won. It doesn’t matter.”
On if Van Chancellor asked her to play more aggressively on offense…
“Yeah. He just wanted me to look for my shot a little bit more, just to open up the offense for Allison, Boogie, and Courtney (Jones) and make it easier on them. I just came out and got a good look on the first shot and just tried to help my teammates out.”
On Courtney Jones’ performance tonight…
“That’s really good shooting, especially for us being a team that doesn’t shoot that many threes. Courtney played well. Allison (Hightower) and Boogie (LaSondra Barrett) always do well. Those four threes were good shots.”
On their improved play over the last five games…
“I definitely think we’ve locked in more defensively. We’ve got to clean up turnovers and little stuff, but I do think we’re progressing going into our next game and then continuing to the SEC and hopefully NCAA Tournament.”
ARKANSAS HEAD COACH TOM COLLEN
Opening Statement …
“It was a frustrating loss for us. We’re coming off of a tough loss at home after winning three in a row. We knew LSU was going to be a good challenge. Our defense was pretty porous so I give credit to LSU for stepping up and making the shots, although we gave them an awful lot of easy shots. We let Courtney Jones get away from us, especially from the three-point line; that was probably one of the differences in the game. We experimented with the zone, but we really hadn’t practiced it all year long. I think we were a little bit confused; we didn’t play very fast defensively. We gave up too many offensive rebounds. We practiced the zone a little bit, but we really hadn’t practiced boxing it really hard. They exploited us in those two areas, and we couldn’t step up and score enough points.”
On Courtney Jones …
“I think our coaching staff was well aware of the fact that she is a good shooter. She’s been getting good minutes and coming off the bench and playing well. I think it was probably a different post player on our part that lost her every single time. She hit four three-pointers, and I think it was a different person that was supposed to be defending her every single time. She certainly wasn’t an emphasis on the scouting report probably to our players, but she was certainly a player that our staff respects. She can shoot it; obviously our players didn’t get that message.”
On LSU’s depth …
“LSU has a whole roster full of All-Americans. They have a great senior leader in (Allison) Hightower. I think they are a team in the SEC that has struggled this year at times. They come into this game at 7-7, but I wouldn’t say their backs are against the wall. Clearly they are a team that has probably already punched its ticket to the NCAA tournament. But they are a team that is trying to get better and trying to get a better seed in the SEC tournament. I think they have the necessary ingredients to get into the tournament and make a run in the tournament. They are obviously very talented and have no lack for coaching.”