The LSU women’s basketball team had to overcome some adversity to defeat Tulane for the eighth time this decade Wednesday.In their 73-65 overtime victory, the No. 7 Lady Tigers lost senior guard Allison Hightower and sophomore forward Courtney Jones to injuries.Hightower left the game with cramps with 2:44 to play in regulation, and Jones suffered an ankle injury. LSU coach Van Chancellor said after the game the Lady Tigers effectively picked up the slack without Hightower and Jones on the floor.”Let’s also give the Lady Tigers credit for effort when it counted,” Chancellor said. “We had two starters not playing, but we found a way to keep [Tulane] from scoring at the end of regulation. We then found a way to take it over in overtime.”Team spokesman Bill Martin told The Daily Reveille on Sunday that Jones and Hightower have both been at practice since Wednesday’s game. Martin also said Jones and Hightower should be available Tuesday.Hightower reached 1,000 career points on Nov. 22 at home against Nicholls State, joining 27 other Lady Tigers to achieve the mark, and scored 18 points against the Green Wave.Cramps have forced Hightower to miss time on several occasions the last two seasons, including last year against Tennessee in the regular season and Wisconsin-Green Bay in the first round of the NCAA tournament — both LSU wins. The Arlington, Texas, native also sat out the final three minutes in LSU’s 61-40 victory against Middle Tennessee on Nov. 18 this season.”We just could not score at one time when we lost Allison Hightower,” Chancellor said. “So much of what we run is off of her. We have to find a way to solve her problem.”The 31st meeting between LSU and Tulane was LSU’s first overtime contest since Feb. 16, 2006, against Florida and the first in Chancellor’s career in Baton Rouge.The Lady Tigers ran their record to 5-0 this season, the first time Chancellor has achieved the mark in his three-year career at LSU.Tulane (2-2) shot the ball more effectively than LSU — 43 percent to 34 percent from the field. After the game, Chancellor praised Tulane’s ability to make shots down the stretch and force overtime.LSU came into Wednesday shooting 45.6 percent from the field on the season, but the Lady Tigers converted just 5-of-23 shots in the second half, as Tulane limited them to their lowest shooting percentage of the season. 
 
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