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LSU LADY TIGERS WIN FIFTH STRAIGHT, BEAT AUBURN, 57-41 TO MOVE INTO THIRD-PLACE TIE IN SEC
BATON
ROUGE -- LSU All-America candidate LaSondra Barrett recorded her sixth
double-double of the season with 13 points and 11 rebounds as the Lady
Tigers claimed their fifth consecutive victory in defeating Auburn,
57-41, in the Pink Game recognizing breast cancer awareness on Sunday
afternoon in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
A season-high
paid crowd of 6,763 watched LSU continue its ascend up the Southeastern
Conference standings. The Lady Tigers (19-8, 9-5 SEC) moved into a tie
for third-place with Arkansas, South Carolina, Georgia and Vanderbilt
with two games remaining. The 6,763 in attendance was the largest crowd
to watch a Lady Tiger game in the PMAC since Feb. 1, 2009, when 6,887
watched LSU face Auburn.
“On the defensive end, we are doing a
good job of holding our opponents in the high 40s to low 50s scoring,”
said LSU head coach Nikki Caldwell. “Offensively we are not
capitalizing and executing on the other end because of our lack of
taking care of the basketball. The thing I have harped on this group
about is that we are going to win with our defense and our rebounding.
The game may be ugly, but as long as you are collecting those wins at
this time of the season, it’s good to focus on that.
Auburn dropped its fifth straight game and fell to 11-16 overall and 3-11 in the league standings.
Barrett,
who moved into eighth place with Sylvia Fowles in career starts with
107, was a perfect 6-of-6 from the free throw line and added three
steals. Jeanne Kenney put in 11 points and nailed a perfect 3-of-3 from
three-point range – all in the first half. Both Courtney Jones and
Adrienne Webb contributed seven points apiece.
For the fourth
consecutive game, LSU held an opponent under 50 points as Auburn became
the latest victim, shooting only 30.9 percent from the floor and 22.2
percent in the second half. Despite committing 24 turnovers, Auburn
converted those into only nine points.
LSU rode a 9-0
first-half run and 63.2 percent shooting in the first 20 minutes to
claim a 33-26 lead into the locker room. The Lady Tigers nailed threes
on three straight possessions – two from Kenney and one from Webb –
while Bianca Lutley found Jones on a beautiful alley-oop layup.
Auburn
hung around early in the second half with both teams going cold from
the floor. Auburn managed the only field goal of the first six minutes
of the stanza until Lutley’s layup at the 13:43 mark. A jumper by
Barrett ignited another 9-0 run that left LSU with a 46-31 lead with
6:21 remaining in the contest.
Sheila Boykin came off the bench to give the Lady Tigers their largest lead, 53-35.
LSU
dominated the boards, out-rebounding Auburn, 35-23, and improving to
16-4 when out-rebounding opponents on the season. LSU has out-rebounded
10 of its 14 SEC opponents.
The Lady Tigers senior class of
Barrett, Jones, Taylor Turnbow, Swayze Black and Destini Hughes will be
honored prior to their final regular season home game when LSU hosts
Vanderbilt at 8 p.m. CT Thursday in the Maravich Center. The contest
will be televised by Fox Sports Net. Tickets are on sale at
www.LSUtix.net.
NOTES: LSU recognized breast cancer
survivors at halftime with a special tribute and parade with Baton
Rouge Mayor Kip Holden on hand … A handful of Lady Tiger alumni were
also on hand and recognized at halftime, including Latear Eason,
Cornelia Gayden and Latasha Dorsey … LSU remained undefeated in Pink
Games, improving to 5-0 … The Lady Tigers wore special Nike pink
uniforms and shoes.
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