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Defense Propels No. 16 Women’s Hoops Past Tulane, 67-35
The trio of DaShawn
Harden, Jeanne Kenney and Theresa Plaisance combined for 43 points, and
the No. 16 LSU women’s basketball team also used suffocating defense en
route to a 63-35 victory over Tulane Sunday at Devlin Fieldhouse.
The
win enabled LSU (12-2) to end a three-game losing streak to the Green
Wave (9-4) which dated back to the 2009-10 season. On the defensive
end, the Lady Tigers held the Tulane to 11 field goals and forced the
Green Wave into 25 turnovers. LSU scored 29 of the game’s 36 points off
turnovers.
The 35 points allowed were tied for the
second-fewest in the Nikki Caldwell era at LSU. The last time was a
77-35 Lady Tigers victory over Lamar on Dec. 18, 2011. For Tulane, the
35 points matched the third-lowest scoring output in program history,
and the Green Wave’s lowest scoring total dating back to a 73-35 loss
to Southern Miss on Jan. 13, 1990.
“We wanted to carry the
momentum that we had coming off the Tennessee game into today’s game
especially on the defensive end,” head coach Nikki Caldwell said. “Our
efforts were to try and disrupt Tulane’s guard play and keep them off
the offensive glass. We talked about setting the tone during the first
four minutes off the game especially on the road, and we did that well
tonight.”
Kenney poured in the contest’s first 12 points
on a quartet of triples and scored 15 of her game-leading 17 points
during the opening stanza. She also handed out five assists against one
turnover over her 30 minutes of action.
Plaisance filled
the box score with 15 points, 14 rebounds, three blocks and three
steals. The 14 rebounds were her second-highest effort on the season,
while her three blocks and three steals equaled season’s best. It also
was Plaisance’s third double-double of 2013-14 and her 11th career
double dip.
Harden pumped in 11 of LSU’s 21 bench
points on 4-of-6 shooting to secure her second consecutive double digit
scoring performance. She tacked on four rebounds, three assists and two
steals.
LSU received points and a rebound from nine of
its 11 players. Danielle Ballard, Rina Hill, Raigyne Moncrief and Anne
Pedersen chipped in four points apiece for the Lady Tigers. Ballard
secured five rebounds and tied a season-high with four steals whereas
Moncrief contributed four assists, three rebounds and three steals.
“The
great thing about our team is that we have a lot of versatility,”
Caldwell said. “The other night at Tennessee it was the Danielle
Ballard show. I like the fact that we have a balanced attack. Our
players are understanding and buying into the fact that it may not
always be their night to score and take a lot of shots. It may be their
night to be a great screener or a great defender. Being selfless and
making that sacrifice for our team, that’s been a huge positive for us.
We’re going to continue to talk to our team about it because it’s the
difference between good teams and great teams.”
As a team,
LSU connected for a 23-of-52 shooting performance sparked by a 9-for-18
effort from triple territory. The Lady Tigers have been over 40.0
percent in 11 of its 14 outings for the season, while the nine
three-pointers were a season-high. LSU also was a perfect 8-for-8 at
the foul line.
Tulane was 11-of-53 from the floor, 4-of-19
from the three-point arc and 9-of-14 at the free throw. The 11 field
goals were tied for the third-fewest total in the Caldwell era. LSU’s
defense stymied Arkansas-Pine Bluff (Nov. 21) and Alabama (Jan. 8) to
10 field goals during the 2011-12 campaign.
Kenney
vaulted LSU to a 12-0 advantage in the game’s first 3:10 on four
triples. The Lady Tigers hit on six of their first 12 shots and built a
17-4 advantage on a Harden three-ball at the 12:52 mark.
Tulane
got back to single digits at 19-10 with 11:00 remaining, but the Lady
Tigers ripped off the next 11 points over the next 6:59. Ballard buried
consecutive jumpers to ignite the flurry followed by Kenney’s fifth
trifecta of the half and four straight Plaisance points to make it
30-10 with 4:01 to go.
LSU would take a 33-13 edge into
the locker room. The Lady Tigers picked up eight assists on their 12
first half baskets, and Tulane finished with a paltry 4-for-25 shooting
performance.
“Jeanne was feeling it, and she was on a
mission,” Caldwell said. “Her and her teammates were focused in on
getting us off to a great start on the road. Credit to them because
they were finding her early, and she felt very comfortable in letting
it rip. She really set the tone for us for the offensive end.”
The
Green Wave tallied the opening seven points of the second stanza to
draw back to 33-20 capped by a Bragg three-pointer at the 17:30 mark.
Midway
through the second half, LSU seized the momentum back and put the game
away with a 20-3 run. The spurt lasted from 13:19 to 3:03 on the clock,
and the Lady Tigers secured their largest lead of the contest at 57-26.
The
Green Wave was led by Jamie Kaplan’s 10 points and Danielle Blagg’s
nine points. However, the duo was bottled up for a combined 6-of-28
from the floor and misfired on 13 of its 16 three-point
attempts.
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