BATON ROUGE, La. — Senior Akilah Bethel and sophomore Jenna Deemer combined for 34 points as the LSU women’s basketball team defeated UC Santa Barbara, 68-50, Sunday afternoon in the Maravich Assembly Center.
With the victory, the Lady Tigers (6-4) earned their second victory for the month of December and remained undefeated against the Gauchos in the all-time season series, 5-0.
For the game, the Lady Tigers shot 48 percent from the field and outrebounded the Gauchos 43-29. LSU also scored more bench points, more second chance points and more points in the paint than UCSB. The Gauchos shot 34 percent from the field.
Bethel, who has scored in double figures in five of the last six games this season, led the Lady Tigers in scoring with a career-high 18 points off an 8-of-14 shooting effort from the field. Bethel tied her career highs in field goals made (8), assists (5) and steals (4) in leading LSU in nearly every category. She also registered a blocked shot and a team-high nine rebounds.
Deemer logged her sixth double-digit scoring game of the season with 16 points. She was 6-of-11 from the field, including a 3-of-6 effort from three-point range. Also scoring in double figures today was Jasmine Rhodes with 10 points. Rhodes was 5-of-9 from the field and also hauled in five rebounds.
Jasmine Ware led the Gauchos in scoring with 10 points. Je Zhe Newton led UCSB in rebounding with seven boards.
In the fourth quarter, the Lady Tigers kept their foot on the gas, scoring efficiently and outrebounding the Gauchos on both ends of the floor to get the victory.
In the third, LSU took the court with a lot of energy. The Lady Tigers went on a 9-3 run to begin the quarter, taking a 39-25 lead. Following a timeout with 4:47 remaining, the Lady Tigers found a consistent rhythm on offense, limited the Gauchos to seven points for the remainder of the quarter and led 48-33 going into the final quarter.
At the half, LSU shot 42 percent from field and outrebounded UC Santa Barbara, 22-16. The Gauchos shot 36 percent from the floor. Bethel led Lady Tigers in scoring with 12 points at the half. For the Gauchos, Onome Jemerigbe led the team with in scoring with seven points.
In the second quarter, the two teams continued to score back and forth. The Gauchos went on a 5-2 run to cut the Lady Tigers’ lead to 20-17. After a timeout with 6:23 remaining, the Gauchos tied the game at 20-20 on a three point shot from Makala Roper. The Lady Tigers, however, closed the quarter on a 10-5 run, leading the Gauchos 30-22.
The two teams traded baskets to begin the game. Following a timeout with 4:56 remaining in the first quarter, the Lady Tigers went on a 10-3 run to take a 14-10 lead at the end of the quarter.
LSU travels to the East Coast this week for a highly-competitive road swing with Rutgers (Dec. 19) and UConn (Dec. 21) before a short holiday break. The Lady Tigers’ next home game will be versus Samford on Dec. 28 at 7 p.m., which will round out LSU’s non-conference schedule.
HEAD COACH NIKKI FARGAS
Opening statement …
“First off, it’s very good to be back playing. We’ve had a long layover, if you will, not playing in over 12 days. When you have exams coming up we recognize that you have to take that time for your study days and obviously you have to make sure that these young ladies are getting the grades that they need. They’ve worked extremely hard. We’ve got two young ladies up here (Akilah Bethel and Jenna Deemer) where we have an academic competition and they’ve both been MVPs of their team. We split the team in half and it’s based on a few different things and these ladies have taken their academics very seriously. With that being said, today was a game that was much needed before you play on the road at Rutgers and at Connecticut. This is a game that got us back into the rhythm and really gave us that feel of 40 minutes of basketball. Today we had a lot of people step up in different ways. Not only did our starters do what they needed to do to get us off to a great start, but the play of our bench was key as well. I thought Jasmine Rhodes did a nice job of just being that spark and being that player that we know can come in and give us points early and quickly and obviously defensively come up with some steals. Today was a great team effort.”
On the break for finals …
“By giving them preparation and quality days off, the break didn’t seem as long because I was doing something different this year. I was giving them two days off and then practice a couple more days and then two more days off. I think they have been very eager to get back on the court and to compete in that type of setting. It was a great environment for us to play in. There was a lot of energy in the gym and we brought a lot of that energy to the court.”
On getting early fouls…
“We talked about the fact that when two of your starters are sitting there with a foul in that first quarter early, you sit them and then your offensive punch with (Alexis) Hyder and (Jenna) Deemer is gone. Again, I was extremely proud of Jasmine Rhodes for really stepping in. Anne Pedersen came back and she made a couple of big baskets for us as well. We don’t plan for those two and we told them at the half that they cannot put us in that kind of a position. We only have eight players eligible to play today and two of you guys are in foul trouble in the first quarter. So they re-adjusted and we did as well and we shot the ball better.”
On LSU’s defensive pressure …
“It’s huge. Our ability to disrupt the game through our defensive pressure is something that we want to do and we try to do and we are being very strategic to when we do it because we don’t have the depth that you would like to have in playing that style. We have to be very intentional on what group we have in there to put that pressure on. We wanted to have momentum going into the half so we picked up the defensive pressure full court and we wanted to start the second half with some turnovers and we did that through our defensive pressure as well. Different people stepped up for us defensively. Akilah Bethel plays the top of that pressure but I liked the play of Rina Hill up there too. She’s just all over the place and brings such a gutsy, hard-working athlete to the game for us.”
On Akilah Bethel having a career high today …
“We ran some play action to her where she was not just on the block. We allowed her to play away from the rim and use her athleticism to get to the rim. She also went to a pull up jump shot game that she’s been working on and she was able to knock down those shots. She’s a player that we’ve allowed to play multiple positions so you just can’t guard her at the five. She plays 1-5 for us and that to me commands different defenders, different types of defenders. She might have to be guarded by a guard or a bigger post player. Then we will basically look at our play calls for her based on the defense and who’s on her.”
On this week’s road trip to Rutgers and UConn…
“This is what it’s all about and I told our kids this. You play historically two of the best women’s basketball programs. When you think about what Rutgers and Vivian Stringer has done for the game and then the fact of UConn and their legacy that’s being left. This is a great opportunity for our team to really go into a hostile environment and show what you are made of. In doing so you can only come away a winner.”
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
On if the team thought it was going to be tough getting into a rhythm coming off of a 12-day layoff….
“Yes and no. You’re always nervous about being rusty when you’re off for a good amount of time, but I think we came out ready to compete. I think that we were mad that we were off that much. We were ready to play games after practicing all week. We just wanted to get out there and compete.”
On what the difference was in the first and second half regarding consistency and knocking down shots…
“Akilah Bethel. We put our confidence in her, and she did her job and then it was time for me to knock down shots. It was just a team effort. You stop one, you got to stop the other four.”
On her performance in the first half…
“I think my teammates really gave me confidence to just go at people. They’re saying ‘This person can’t guard you’ and they just really pumped me up. Coach designed plays for me to be at my best and to drive at people who can’t guard me. The confidence of my team saying ‘Go for it’ really helped me.
On the performance of the team overall…
“Overall it was a great team effort. We brought a lot of energy and that trickled down to the bench. Everybody came out hyped and ready to go. We’re going to stay on this path and try to get better and prepare for our upcoming Rutgers and Connecticut game.
On how she would characterize going into the next two games against two great opponents…
“This season has been redemption for us. We lost to Long Beach State last year; we came back and beat them. We lost to Rutgers last year, so we’re looking to get two big wins on the road. We’re just ready to compete. We’re excited that these are two great teams. We’re ready to go.
UCSB Head Coach Bonnie Henrickson
Opening Statement…
“I think there were a number of things that made a difference in the game. I think for us, on both ends our inability to have a post presence. And that’s not just a post thing—it’s a guard/post thing. The guards have to do their job to throw the ball inside, and the post has to do a good job of keeping someone behind them. Then their (LSU) ability to throw the ball at will inside. (Akilah) Bethel obviously got us when we had a three guard, and got us when we had a four guard her. She took advantage of her being skilled and able to drive that and get loose there. There were a number of things, but I think that’s the thing that stands out in the game for me. And really for us moving forward. We have to be able to improve on that aspect of the game on both ends.”
On moving forward…
“We’re a scrappy team. If we’re not going to be scrappy–diving on the floor for loose balls, we’ve got to own all parts of the game that require no talent, then find a way to put together some stretches where we can score. We struggled to get 50, and probably eight or nine of those were pretty late. I thought we did some decent things in some of the trapping action. I thought we battled in stretches. In this part of the game you have to grow stretches where you play well and shrink stretches where you don’t.”