TIME UPDATE: Wednesday game against UTEP has been moved to 5 p.m. CT, while Thursday’s game has been moved to 7:30 p.m.
PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico – The LSU women’s basketball team put together a late flurry and nearly overcame an 11-point halftime deficit, but Santa Clara held off the Lady Tigers to claim a 69-67 decision Tuesday on the opening day of the Hardwood Tournament of Hope.
The Lady Tigers (2-4) had five players collect double figures led by Sheila Boykin who secured a career-high 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting off the bench. DaShawn Harden added 12 points en route to her second consecutive performance with 10-plus points.
Anne Pedersen equaled a season’s best with 11 points coupled with five rebounds and three assists, while Raigyne Moncrief turned in a solid all-around effort with 10 points, five rebounds, five assists and five steals. Akilah Bethel tacked on 10 points and six rebounds.
As a team, LSU was 24-of-61 from the floor. The Lady Tigers were 5-of-12 on three-pointers and were 14-of-18 at the free throw line.
Santa Clara (3-1) was an efficient 21-of-40 shooting and dialed up nine triples. The Broncos also tallied an 18-for-24 effort from the charity stripe.
Santa Clara was fueled by Nici Gilday’s 29 points and seven three-pointers. On the interior, Maddison Allen notched 13 points and three blocks.
“I think the one thing that we’ve got to realize is that when you come on the road, you’ve got to generate your own energy and excitement,” head coach Nikki Caldwell said. “You’ve got to be that team that comes ready to play, and we’ve got to be better. We’ve got to challenge ourselves at the very beginning of the game to execute not only on the defensive end but offensively as well. A lot of credit to Santa Clara – like I said, they came out and stuck to their game plan. When they saw the wide open player, they hit them and knocked down shots.”
The Broncos led wire-to-wire as Gilday opened the scoring 16 seconds into the contest with one of her six trifectas during the opening half. Santa Clara took a 34-23 advantage into halftime.
Trailing 36-25 at the 18:09 mark of the second half, the Lady Tigers put together 10 of the next 12 points over the next 4:43 to draw back within three points.
Ann Jones and Rina Hill ignited the spurt with back-to-back jumpers, while Boykin and Moncrief capped the run with consecutive layups to make it 38-35 with 13:26 remaining.
Santa Clara responded with nine straight points of its own and received back-to-back triples courtesy of Sidney Rielly to go back ahead 47-35 with 10:35 to go.
LSU mounted one final rally and trimmed a 10-point hole with just over three minutes left down to 66-63 at the 1:51 mark after Harden canned a three-ball on the left baseline.
The Lady Tigers had an opportunity to tie the score, but Pedersen misfired on a three-pointer. On its next possession, Santa Clara’s Raquel Aliva hit a driving layup with the shot clock running down to put the Broncos up by a 68-63 margin with 42.6 seconds on the clock.
A Moncrief layup in the closing seconds brought the score to a 69-67 final.
“We did a very good job in this second half of really disrupting a very good Santa Clara basketball team,” Caldwell said. “We were getting after them in our full court pressure, and we were able to turn them over and convert offensively. It’s got to be for 40 minutes. We’ve got to be able to string along a run. We had a run going. Then, we would miss our coverage on the defensive end. Santa Clara being a very solid basketball team, they were able to make those key baskets when they needed them.”
LSU continues its stretch of three games in three days Wednesday at the Hardwood Tournament of Hope as the Lady Tigers meet UTEP. Tipoff is scheduled for 5 p.m. from the Puerto Vallarta Convention Center.
The LSU Sports Radio Network will be unable to broadcast the final two games of the tournament. Live game updates will be available on LSU’s social media outlets at www.Facebook.com/LSUwbkb, @lsuwbkb and @NikkiCaldwell on Twitter, @LSUwbkb and @LSUNikkiCaldwell on Instagram.
“We’ve got to be ready to come back tomorrow and really change some things,” Caldwell said. “We’ve got to challenge ourselves to be more disciplined on the defensive end. I thought that allowing Santa Clara’s shooters to have wide-open looks really hurt us, and we’re better than that. We’re a better defensive team than what we played today. So we’ve got to go back, and we’re going to have to really be ready to bring our defense and our board play.”
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.