BATON ROUGE – The LSU women’s basketball team overcame a five-point deficit midway through the second half and scored all eight points during overtime en route to a 52-44 victory over Jackson State Monday at the Maravich Center.
“A lot of credit (goes) to Jackson State,” head coach Nikki Caldwell said. “They played with a lot of heart, a lot of spirit. They played hard, and they played as a unit. They came in here, and they didn’t give up when we were up. I just have a tremendous amount of respect for that team, their coaching staff and what they were able to accomplish tonight. I know the score tells a different story but, in my eyes, Jackson State was the winner here tonight. We are a team that has to improve quickly and the area of concern right now is our inability to take care of the basketball. Then obviously, when you do enough defensively and when you are holding a team in the 40s, you have to look at your offensive execution. We will go back, look at film and see where we can help this team get better in executing in the half court.”
Ann Jones posted her first career double-double with 12 points and 14 rebounds. She was 6-of-12 from the floor and nine of her 14 rebounds came on the offensive end.
Anne Pedersen chipped in 11 points and two assists, while Raigyne Moncrief tallied 10 points and nine rebounds. Moncrief contributed all 10 of her points in the second half and overtime. Off the bench, DaShawn Harden came away with nine points and six steals.
Akilah Bethel turned in a solid all-around effort with six points, five rebounds and four steals. On the defensive end, Sheila Boykin contributed eight rebounds and two blocks.
Moncrief buried a 12-foot jumper on the left wing for the first points of overtime to give LSU (2-1) the lead for good. Pedersen added two free throws, and Bethel secured a steal followed by a layup. Moncrief tacked on two more free throws inside the final 30 seconds to close out the 52-44 win.
Jackson State (0-2) was led by Ayanna Hardy-Fuller’s 13 points. Alisa Ross also tacked on 11 points for the visitors.
LSU fired out to a 9-4 advantage at the 15:46 mark of the opening half. Jones and Pedersen combined for the team’s first nine points. Jones provided a pair of baskets off putbacks, while Pedersen knocked down a two jumpers which included a traditional three-point play.
Jackson State rallied and trimmed the LSU lead down to 19-18 with 4:14 remaining. LSU responded with four consecutive field goals and ripped off a 9-0 run to go up 28-18 with 2:16 to go. Harden bookended the spurt with a layup off a steal and a three-ball off a Pedersen assist.
LSU was up 30-21 heading into the locker room and opened up its largest lead on a Pedersen jumper during the opening minute of the second half.
Over the next 9:12 off the clock, Jackson State put together 19 of the next 22 points to erase an 11-point deficit and turn it into a five-point lead. The duo of Hardy-Fuller and Ross collected nine of the team’s 19 points to make it 40-35 with 9:10 left.
LSU charged back with nine straight points aided by a Moncrief three-point play coupled with a Pedersen jumper, a Bethel layup and a Moncrief jumper to put the Lady Tigers ahead 44-40 at the 4:04 mark. Jackson State was able to score the last four points of regulation to force overtime.
“It was huge for us to have a presence inside with Ann (Jones) and Akilah (Bethel),” Caldwell said. “I thought those two did a really nice job of establishing themselves not only on the glass but defensively. I thought that they did a nice job of really being in the right place at the right time and not allowing Jackson State’s post game to get going. Again, this is work in progress. This group will get it, and it will come.”
LSU continues its stretch of five games over an eight-day span to open the 2014-15 season and squares off with Tulane Wednesday evening at the Maravich Center.
Tip time is on-tap for 7 p.m. The game will be carried online only by SEC Network Plus via www.WatchESPN.com and the Watch ESPN app. Lyn Rollins and Victor Howell will serve as the announcing team.
The LSU Sports Radio Network will broadcast the game on its flagship station Talk 107.3 FM in Baton Rouge. The broadcast featuring Patrick Wright, the voice of the Lady Tigers, also will be available for Geaux Zone subscribers at www.LSUsports.net/live.
Season tickets are on sale for $75 online at http://www.LSUtix.net/. The LSU Athletics Ticket Office can be reached at (800) 960-8587 or (225) 578-2184 and is located on the first floor of the Moran Family Center for Athletics Administration Building. Hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.
For all of the latest news and information on Lady Tiger basketball, visit www.LSUsports.net/womensbasketball. Fans can also follow the program on its social media outlets at www.Facebook.com/LSUwbkb, @lsuwbkb and @NikkiCaldwell on Twitter, @LSUwbkb and @LSUNikkiCaldwell on Instagram.
LSU Women’s Basketball Postgame Quotes
LSU vs. Jackson State – November 17, 2014
Opening statement …
“A lot of credit (goes) to Jackson State. They played with a lot of heart, a lot of spirit. They played hard, and they played as a unit. They came in here, and they didn’t give up when we were up. I just have a tremendous amount of respect for that team, their coaching staff and what they were able to accomplish tonight. I know the score tells a different story but, in my eyes, Jackson State was the winner here tonight. We are a team that has to improve quickly and the area of concern right now is our inability to take care of the basketball. Then obviously, when you do enough defensively and when you are holding a team in the 40s, you have to look at your offensive execution. We will go back, look at film and see where we can help this team get better in executing in the half court.”
On what was said going into overtime …
“I told them that you can learn from this. You want to come in here, and you’ve got 40 minutes of basketball. You’ve got to play that, but now we’ve got five more minutes. You have another opportunity to prove yourself. You’ve got another opportunity to really say ‘You know what, we may not have done what we needed to do in regulation but overtime, here is where we can be better’. They basically had a little bit more to prove in overtime. Defensively, we did what we needed to do. Offensively, we got some good looks. We were able to get some transition baskets. I think Akilah (Bethel) got an and-one play in overtime. Those are energy plays.”
On the team’s turnovers …
“We didn’t make some great decisions in transition. I thought we turned the ball over too much when we had numbers. Our spacing wasn’t what it needed to be to allow one post at the rim and one to trail. Our decision making became not as good as we needed it to be. It was multiple players. It wasn’t just Ray (Raigyne Moncrief) at one time, it was everybody. Everybody wanted to get a turnover it seemed like. We’ve got to figure out how to eliminate that. We tried to go to someone, quick hit action so that the ball wasn’t being manipulated around by multiple people. That is something that we’ve got to look at closely to see if that is going to be an effective play to basically calm the waters. I thought we played a little too fast and raddled especially when the game became a game late in the second half. ”
On the team’s ability to mesh …
“We have two new faces inside starting for us with Key (Akilah Bethel) and AJ (Ann Jones). When you look at Moncrief as the primary payer from that had quality minutes, it is going to take some time. It’s still early, and that’s what we are focusing in on. We are just going to move forward and try to just really hone in on the areas that we talked about. Again, the cohesiveness of this group, it’s going to come. I do believe that this group will eventually be clicking. They will start clicking at the right time. Right now we need them to do two things – take care of the basketball and eliminate people’s second and third opportunities.”
On the importance of Ann Jones …
“It was huge for us to have a presence inside with Ann (Jones) and Akilah (Bethel). I thought those two did a really nice job of establishing themselves not only on the glass but defensively. I thought that they did a nice job of really being in the right place at the right time and not allowing Jackson State’s post game to get going. Again, this is work in progress. This group will get it, and it will come.”
GUARD RAIGYNE MONCRIEF
On the flow of the game…
“As guards, we have to take care of the ball. That is the first thing that we have to get better at. As Coach (Caldwell) says, if we don’t set the tone for the beginning of the game – things are not going to go well.”
On her adjustments after a scoreless first half ..
“My coaches and teammates were telling me in my ear to be patient and to take my time – the plays were going to come eventually. I wouldn’t give the credit to myself but definitely the coaching staff. They believed in me to make plays happen.”
On developing team chemistry …
“It starts with chemistry, Coach Caldwell gave us the opportunity to perform and it is our duty to go out and preform each night. It starts with Rina Hill and myself. We are the two point guards and are supposed to give the ball in space, but we had a ton of turnovers and miscommunications.”
On the team forcing Jackson State into 35 turnovers …
“I think it started with DaShawn Harden. She did a great job of coming off the bench and creating deflections. Once she got on a roll, then the rest of the team followed after. We just have to get are offensive production better.”
On tonight’s overall performance …
“It was very unacceptable. Coach (Caldwell) was right in saying the Jackson State was the real winners. We have to play better. They just came out ready to play, and their energy was much better than ours. They wanted it harder than us.”
On Wednesday’s Tulane game …
“It starts in practice tomorrow. We need to watch the film and forget what happen today and move on. Tulane is going to be hyped up … we are just going to have to be ready to play.”
FORWARD ANN JONES
On her performance …
“I just wanted to step up and do the things the team needed me to do to win the game which was rebound. That my focus was for the night was to grab the boards.”
On how a game like tonight can build her confidence …
“ Well, I can’t just turn it on whenever I want. It has to be a consistent thing. With the help of my teammates, I believe we can do it together.”
JACKSON STATE HEAD COACH SURINA DIXON
On JSU’s performance…
“I think we did a pretty good job. We have to definitely take care of the ball. We had 35 turnovers. We have to really work on boxing out and rebounding. We gave up 20 offensive rebounds. We outrebounded this team, (LSU) but we gave up 20 offensive rebounds which I think turned into points for them. I just have to keep the team focused and let them know that we have to get better at those things. If not, we are going to beat ourselves.”
On JSU’s halftime adjustments…
“One of the things we wanted to do was to play one possession at a time. I told the girls not to rush, not to get in a hurry and just take care of the ball. You play the game one possession at a time. Let’s go down and try to make a stop. Let’s come back and score. We did that and we were able to catch up.”
On the final possession before overtime…
“Once we stole the ball, we got in a hurry. We tried to dribble in between two or three people and turned the ball over. I was trying to wait until the guard got it past half-court to call a timeout, so we could run one last play in regulation. After we turned it over, we were unable to do that.”
On JSU’s overtime performance…
“I wasn’t satisfied with overtime. I don’t think we played good defense, and I don’t think we scored. I’m okay if we don’t score, but we have to make sure we don’t allow the other team to score. I don’t think our defensive effort was as good as it should have been. It was in regulation. Those are some things we will definitely work on.”