The LSU woman’s basketball team proved Sunday afternoon against Georgia that it is not how you start, but rather how you finish that counts.
Despite trailing by 14 points halfway through the first half, LSU (15-1, 1-0) used a second half surge to defeat the University of Georgia (13-3, 1-1), 57-55, in front of 7,666 fans for the 11th annual Pack the PMAC game.
In the Lady Tigers’ game against the University of South Florida on Jan. 3, the team trailed by 14 points early in the first half. LSU coach Pokey Chatman said she is still pleased with how her team played in the game’s early minutes.
“It’s one of those things where you look at the shot chart and evaluate it,” she said. “Nine of those shots were five feet from the basket, so it just simply becomes a test of character to knock it down.”
Junior forward Sylvia Fowles led LSU with 20 points and 12 rebounds, but she also had problems early in the game.
Freshman guard Christy Marshall led the Bulldogs with 12 points off the bench.
Georgia junior forward Tasha Humphrey played Fowles man-to-man, but when Fowles touched the ball, the Bulldog’s junior forward Megan Darrah helped defend the LSU All-American, holding her scoreless for the first 15 minutes of the game.
Without Fowles’ offensive production, LSU earned baskets from freshman guard Allison Hightower, junior forward Ashley Thomas and junior guard Quianna Chaney to cut Georgia’s lead to four with six minutes remaining in the first half.
Georgia earned three baskets by Christy Marshall to maintain a 27-22 lead going to halftime.
Chatman said she told her team to remain calm at halftime.
“It was not about ranting and raving,” she said. “I didn’t see the shot chart, but when you see the shot chart, we just need to knock the shots down.”
The Lady Tigers began the second half with three baskets by Chaney, including a three pointer with 16:12 to play that gave the Lady Tigers their first lead, 31-29.
For the next 16 minutes of the game, the Lady Tigers Fowles began to score more points despite her slow start.
Fowles scored 14 points in the second half which Georgia coach Andy Landers said was a credit to his team’s poor play.
“We didn’t contest Fowles in the second half,” he said. “In my opinion, she scored eight, 10, or 12 points in a seven minute span totally uncontested.”
As Georgia’s defense was having problems in the paint, the Bulldogs offense gave the team a 53-48 advantage with 3:48 to play after Cori Chambers sunk a perimeter jumpshot.
Allison Hightower made a 3-pointer with three minutes to play, tying the score at 53.
“That’s confidence,” Chatman said. “[Hightower] has ice-water in her veins. The thing about Allison is that you guys remind me that she’s a freshman, but she plays at the same level all the time, and is unfazed by something.”
After a layup by Humphrey, Hightower again calmly made two free-throws to again tie the score with a little more than a minute to play.
After a miss by freshman guard Ashley Houts, LSU took control of the ball with a minute remaining, and Fowles put the Tigers ahead 57-55 with 52 seconds to play.
The Bulldogs had a chance to tie the game with less than 10 seconds to play, but Humphrey missed a layup with five seconds on the clock, sealing the victory for LSU.
Despite the poor start, Fowles said she remained up-beat throughout the game.
“We weren’t going to lose,” Fowles said. “That is all that was going through my head.”
Landers said his team lost because of mental breakdowns on offense.
“They turned it over five or six times, we turned it over 10 or 11 times,” he said. “That is us shooting us, right through the head, not through the foot, but through the head.”
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