After blowing a seven-point halftime lead against then-No. 9 Texas A&M on Sunday afternoon, the LSU women’s basketball team notched its first win against a ranked team this season with a 71-69, double-overtime, upset of No. 15 Mississippi State in Starkville on Thursday.
The Lady Tigers (9-8, 3-2 Southeastern Conference) put together their first complete game of the season, fueled by junior guard Danielle Ballard’s highest scoring performance since returning from a suspension on Jan. 8.
“We held tough,” said LSU coach Nikki Caldwell in a post game radio interview. “The one thing I asked the kids to do before we came over here was to name one person, and I said, ‘I want you to think about them tonight.’ [I asked,] ‘Who are you going to play for tonight?’ We had relatives. We had ‘the team.’ The things they were saying about why they chose the people. We wanted to play that way. I felt as though we gave that effort.”
LSU came out inspired in the first half, opening the game with a 7-0 run. Despite shooting an average of 37.5 percent from the field in the first half throughout the season, the Lady Tigers shot a season-best 66.7 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes.
Senior guard DaShawn Harden led the Lady Tigers with 11 points in the first half.
Although the Lady Tigers led every minute of the first half, they struggled to create second-chance opportunities. Mississippi State (18-2, 3-2 SEC) out-scored LSU 17-2 in second chance points in the first half.
In the first half, the Lady Tigers’ defense smothered the Bulldogs’ top-scoring offense, allowing Mississippi State to shoot only 29.6 percent from the field, holding the Bulldogs’ leading scorer, freshman forward Victoria Vivians, scoreless.
For the second straight game against a ranked opponent, the Lady Tigers had the lead at halftime.
“[At halftime], we talked about not overextending our defense,” Caldwell said. “We wanted to try to take away the paint and not allow them to exploit us with the overload look. I think that really helped our rebounding coverage because we weren’t having two people closing out long on the wing and nobody on the weak side to double box.”
In the second half, the Lady Tigers held the Bulldogs to four offensive rebounds and only four second chance points. Throughout the second half, LSU and Mississippi exchanged runs until regulation ended with the game tied at 53-53.
Ballard took over the game for the Lady Tigers in first overtime, scoring all of LSU’s eight points. She broke the tie with a layup with 3:24 remaining and answered every Mississippi State attempt to rally.
Ballard hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 61-61 with three seconds remaining in the period, taking the game to double overtime.
“The play-action that we drew up was for a hook-three and a drift-three, and we were getting in too slow,” Caldwell said. “She saw the clock winding down and she just lined it up and took the shot and it went in. … We’re just so excited for not only for Danielle, but for this team and the effort they put forth tonight in a great win against a very good Mississippi State team.”
In the second overtime, Ballard made a jumper with 56 seconds remaining to seal the win for LSU.
“That shot the clock was winding down, winding down, and [Ballard] knew at least get it up, and we may have an opportunity to get the offensive rebound,” Caldwell said. “That’s just the type of player Ballard is.”
The Lady Tigers will return home Sunday afternoon when they play No. 10 Kentucky at 1 p.m. in the PMAC.
You can reach her on Twitter @kmprewitt_TDR.