After a 80-71 victory over Missouri, LSU tied its 2015-16 season total for Southeastern Conference wins on Thursday in the PMAC.
Missouri was able to gain a lead early on in the first quarter and held onto the lead throughout the quarter. LSU (14-3 overall, 3-1 SEC) outrebounded Missouri 28 to 19 but the Lady Tiger trailed early on.
LSU shot 47 percent from the field compared to Missouri’s 72 percent.
Missouri (11-7 overall, 1-3 SEC) ended the first quarter leading 21-16.
“The thing in the first half were that they were making a lot of threes,” coach Nikki Fargas said. “If you turn those three-balls into twos, they would have had like 26 points. Our goal is to keep our opponents under 50. They were well on their way at the end of the third with us not reaching our defensive goal but I thought our defensive pressure really bothered them and kept them guessing.”
LSU gained the lead in the second quarter after capitalizing off of a few shot clock violations from Missouri when senior guard Rina Hill made back-to-back baskets for a 24-21 lead.
The Lady Tigers entered halftime trailing 34-31.
LSU trailed Missouri for most of the third quarter but following three back-to-back baskets from senior forward Alexis Hyder and another by sophomore guard Chloe Jackson, the Lady Tigers sprung out to a 8-0 run, to lead 43-40.
Hyder said a big focus for the game was improving defensive efforts.
“At halftime we realized we needed to separate ourselves and take away their main point of emphasis and that’s 3-point shots,” Hyder said. “We definitely outrebounded them plus nine tonight and that was a big part of it. Last couple of games we weren’t boxing out and tonight I think we definitely improved on that.”
The Lady Tigers were able to capitalize off of Missouri’s 26 turnovers, scoring 33 points on turnovers alone. LSU shot 88 percent of its free throws and had 17 turnovers and 28 rebounds.
LSU controlled most of the fourth quarter, but Missouri would come back to tie the game at 57, but LSU grabbed the lead when Jackson netted two free throws.
Jackson ended the game 2-for-2 at the charity line to secure a 80-71 victory over Missouri.
Junior guard Raigyne Moncrief spearheaded the Lady Tigers in points with 23 points. Jackson followed with 20 and Hill posted 12.
“We need Rina [Hill] to be aggressive like that,”Moncrief said. “We need everybody to be an offensive threat on the floor. Coach said that before the game started. We need everybody to have a scoring mentality and Rina did that today. She needs to keep doing that because her and Chloe [Jackson] are two of our best midrange shooters.”
