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Plaisance Pushes No. 15 Women’s Hoops Past Ole Miss, 66-56
Theresa Plaisance racked
up a season’s best 23 points and pulled down a game-leading 10 rebounds
to claim her second consecutive double-double as the No. 15 LSU women’s
basketball team fought past Ole Miss with a 66-56 victory Sunday at Tad
Smith Coliseum.
LSU (16-4, 5-2 SEC) secured its
fifth straight victory and has won 20 of the last 23 meetings in the
series over Ole Miss (10-11, 1-6 SEC) going back to the 1999-2000
season. The win also enabled the Lady Tigers to move up one spot into a
third-place tie in the SEC standings.
For
Plaisance, she was 10-of-18 from the floor which included a pair of
treys. The New Orleans native has pumped in 10 consecutive games with
double figures, her longest streak since a 31-game run last season.
Plaisance also handed out three assists over a season-high 38 minutes
of action
“Theresa did a nice job of showing the
toughness that it takes to play in the SEC,” head coach Nikki Caldwell
said. “We rode her and Danielle. We talked about those two players
doing a nice job for our team by establishing an inside attack. We
obviously need Theresa to perform every game, but I think her 10
rebounds and her board play were keys for us. She played nicely out of
the double teams, and she was able to find some of her teammates. You
got to see what we have always known existed in Theresa that she is a
well-rounded basketball player.
Danielle Ballard
garnered eight of her 12 points during the second half. She also hauled
in seven rebounds and distributed five assists. It was Ballard’s third
straight SEC Sunday with 10-plus points.
Shanece
McKinney registered a strong second half performance with eight points
on 4-of-6 shooting. She finished with 10 points, five rebounds and two
blocks. McKinney has added double figures in three of her last five
outings.
Jeanne Kenney tallied seven points, five
rebounds and three assists whereas Raigyne Moncrief tacked on five
points, nine rebounds and five steals.
Off the
bench, Sheila Boykin came away with four points and two rebounds.
DaShawn Harden provided a balanced three points, three rebounds and
three assists.
Ole Miss was led by Diara Moore’s
17 points followed by Tia Faleru’s 12 points and seven rebounds.
Valencia McFarland was limited to 10 points and five assists after she
reached the 20-point mark during her last three outings. The
Faleru-McFarland tandem misfired on 12 of its 13 field goal attempts in
the second half after they combined to go 7-of-8 from the floor during
the opening 20 minutes.
“When you come on the
road especially in the SEC, we understand that you have to bring your
defense and your board play,” Caldwell said. “I felt as though Ole Miss
did a nice job in the first half of exploiting us in their transition
game, and they were running it to perfection. They did a nice job of
setting the tone after the first four minutes. In the second half, we
talked about how we needed to establish an inside attack and did just
that. That was the difference in the game. Defensively, we did a nice
job of forcing Ole Miss into some jump shots and taking away some paint
points.”
LSU broke a 52-52 tie on a Plaisance
layup coupled with a Harden triple 29 seconds apart to grab a 57-52
lead with 7:06 remaining in the second half. Both plays were setup on
Ballard assists.
Ole Miss used four free throws to
cut the LSU advantage to 57-56 at the 3:44 mark. The Lady Tigers turned
to their defense and forced Ole Miss to miss its final 15 shots over
the final eight-plus minutes.
Plaisance and
McKinney provided layups off of Harden feeds, and LSU knocked down five
of its six free throws over the final 54.9 seconds to tuck away the
66-56 victory.
The Lady Tigers controlled the
interior and scored 24 of the game’s 32 paint points during the second
half. LSU also dominated the glass with a 27-11 rebounding advantage in
the second 20 minutes.
As a team, LSU connected
for a 28-of-58 shooting clip which included a 4-for-10 effort from
three-point territory. The Lady Tigers made 6-of-10 at the free throw
line. The 10 foul line attempts were the second-lowest for the season.
Ole Miss totaled a 21-of-61 effort from the field, but compiled a 7-for-31 ratio during the second half.
LSU’s
perimeter defense also forced the Rebels to a frosty 5-for-26 mark in
treys. Ole Miss was an efficient 9-of-11 at the charity stripe.
“I
thought our shot selection hurt us in the first half,” Caldwell said.
“We were more patient on the offensive end. Basically, I told them they
were coming out if they shot a jumper. We wanted to pound the ball
inside. We took the lesson from Ole Miss because that’s what they were
doing to us in the first half. We tried to be as deliberate as we could
because we wanted to give ourselves the best opportunity to score the
basketball in order to be a better defensive team.”
LSU
fired out to an 18-7 lead during the game’s opening seven minutes. The
Lady Tigers buried eight of their first 13 shots fueled by five layups.
Ole
Miss responded with 16 of the next 20 points capped by a McFarland
traditional three-point play to snatch a 23-22 edge with 7:43 to go.
The
Rebels carried a 36-33 advantage into the locker room and took their
largest lead at 41-35 after a Moore trifecta with 17:59 left on the
clock.
After a timeout, LSU reeled off three
consecutive layups courtesy of Ballard, Plaisance and McKinney during a
56-second span to even the ledger at 41-41.
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