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LSU WOMEN’S BASKETBALL WINS FIFTH IN A ROW, DEFEATS GRAMBLING 62-47 IN HOLIDAY MATINEE
BATON
ROUGE – Senior forward LaSondra Barrett led a trio of double-figure
scorers with 15 points as the LSU women’s basketball team built a
double-digit halftime lead and withstood a late charge from Grambling
to win its fifth straight game, 62-47, on Thursday afternoon in the
Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The contest tipped at a special
noon time and children were allowed free admission into the arena. As
part of the Lady Tigers’ partnership with the Greater Baton Rouge Food
Bank, fans brought in canned good items for a holiday food drive that
concluded on Thursday.
LSU (8-3) remained perfect in the month
of December this season, taking a 36-21 halftime lead before Grambling
(4-6) rallied with a 14-0 run in the second half that cut the advantage
to five. Grambling outshot LSU for the game, 40 percent to 33.8
percent, and GSU became the first team to break the 45-point barrier on
the Lady Tigers since a 77-68 loss at Ohio State last month.
“I
give much credit to Grambling for not giving up and playing with great
intensity,” said LSU head coach Nikki Caldwell. “It did allow us to see
what our bench was made of and allowed us to go deep into our bench to
get quality minutes. I’m proud of this group for finishing out the task
at hand before the Christmas break.”
Barrett tallied four
steals, four assists and six rebounds. Senior forward Courtney Jones
was a perfect 5-of-5 from the floor with 11 points. Taylor Turnbow came
off the bench for a season-high 10 points and Destini Hughes had eight
points and five boards.
LSU separated the score beginning at
the 7:46 mark in the first half when Swayze Black’s layup ignited an
11-2 run over the next five minutes. Barrett knocked down two jumpers
and Destini Hughes and Theresa Plaisance each made a pair of free
throws. Shanece McKinney’s layup with 2:39 left in the stanza made it
31-18 LSU.
The Lady Tigers built their largest lead of the
game, a 19-point advantage with 17:36 to go in the game before
Grambling began a three-point barrage scoring 14 unanswered points over
the next five minutes. Grambling buried four consecutive threes – two
from Tonishea Mack and two from Markisha Patterson – to pull within
40-35 with 12:33 remaining in the game.
Plaisance snapped the
Grambling run when she nailed a trey from the left corner out of a
timeout. Turnbow then responded with three paint buckets in the next
two minutes. LSU closed the game with back-to-back threes from Barrett
and Jeanne Kenney to pull away.
Patterson scored 12 points to
lead Grambling, which finished 6-of-17 from three-point land. LSU,
however, was able to convert 27 Grambling turnovers into 24 points.
“We
will get better,” said Caldwell. “I liked the fact that we were able to
force over 25 turnovers. This team again needs to understand that we
generate our offense through our defense and our board play.”
The
Lady Tigers break for the Christmas holiday for three days before
resuming practice on Dec. 26 in preparation for one final
non-conference game – at Louisiana Tech on Dec. 29 – prior to the start
of Southeastern Conference play on Jan. 1.
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