Just win, baby.
That’s been the motto for the Lady Tigers (13-4) ever since LSU went on its winter holiday, and they nearly made it a perfect 11-for-11 during the break before losing 62-58 to Florida (12-6) on Sunday. It was LSU’s first loss in 50 days.
It looked like Florida was going to win in a landslide, but LSU showed some resiliency late in the game, nearly erasing a 14-point deficit with just more than six minutes remaining.
The Lady Tigers’ defense that came into the matchup giving up only 46.6 points per game clamped down, and the offense awoke from its slumber.
Leading 55-41, Florida missed eight consecutive shots while the Lady Tigers caught fire, sinking four of their next six shots along with four free throws to trim the lead to two points.
But the Gators recovered from LSU’s fast flurry of punches to outscore the Lady Tigers, 7 to 5, over the final 2:28 and end LSU’s win streak at 10.
“When playing catch up, there is usually a series there where you either tie it or you pull ahead, but if you don’t get to that tie, it exhausts you,” LSU coach Nikki Caldwell said in a press release. “In three or four SEC games we have had to play catch up. We have proven that we can come back but we continue to dig ourselves a hole. Today, we weren’t able to come out of that hole.”
The Lady Tigers received strong efforts from senior forwards LaSondra Barrett and Courtney Jones, who combined for 32 points on 11-of-16 shooting and 19 rebounds in the loss.
Aside from Jones and Barrett, the rest of the Lady Tigers struggled from the field against the Gators’ connecting on just 9-of-39 shots from the field, including an ice cold 1-for-10 from the three-point line.
It was LSU’s first loss in conference play, and the 4-0 start in the SEC was its best since the 2007-08 season. Just before LSU students started their finals week, the Lady Tigers looked like a team struggling with the transition between former coach Van Chancellor and his successor, Nikki Caldwell.
LSU had dropped two consecutive games to Big Ten opponents, dropping its record to 3-3 and knocking it out of the top 25.
But LSU found its stride when the fall semester was officially in the books. The Lady Tigers reeled off 10 consecutive wins, using a suffocating defense that held opponents to just 28 percent shooting during the streak.
But LSU can also chalk up a number of its wins to resurgent play from its offense, specifically from senior guard Destini Hughes, who delivered a career-high 17 points against Mississippi State and eclipsed double digits two other times.
“[The offense] is clicking a little bit better because of Destini Hughes,” Caldwell said. “I really feel like she stepped up her offensive execution.”
Hughes added an extra offensive dimension to her game that she didn’t have early in the season.
“She’s always been very constant for us in getting the basketball to the right people,” Caldwell said of Hughes. “But now she’s stepping up and being productive on the offensive end.”
Seven of Hughes’ eight best scoring efforts have come during the LSU win streak, and she has scored eight or more points in LSU’s last seven games.
Hughes’ standout performance during the break and the stout defense helped LSU outscore opponents by an average of 23.6 points per game in its 10 consecutive wins.
The Lady Tigers will look to get back in the win column Thursday in Knoxville, Tenn., against No. 6 Tennessee.
 
 
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Contact Luke Johnson at [email protected]