Being heartbroken on Valentine’s Day is not a good feeling — just ask the LSU women’s basketball team.
The Lady Tigers (17-10, 7-6) lost a heartbreaker to No. 15 Kentucky (19-6, 8-4) on Sunday afternoon in a 49-47 duel. The defeat marks the first time LSU has lost in Lexington, Ky., since 1994.
“It was a tough, tough loss,” LSU coach Van Chancellor said in a postgame interview. “We’ve been so close all year and just can’t get over the hump.”
With the game tied at 47 and just 29 seconds left, LSU followed suit with the theme of the game — turnovers.
The Lady Tigers gave the ball back to the Wildcats after a traveling call. Kentucky sophomore guard A’dia Mathies drove the lane and found an open Brittany Henderson, who scored her first basket of the game with 1.1 seconds left on the clock to seal the victory.
“I thought we played about as hard as we can play,” Chancellor said. “It’s hard to win close games when you turn the ball over twice with 48 seconds to go and miss a wide-open layup. Otherwise, our kids played hard.”
LSU’s conference-leading defense held Kentucky’s 24th-ranked offense to just 22 points and a 27.3 shooting percentage in the first half and held a one-point lead going into the break.
The Lady Tigers forced 10 turnovers in the first half but lost 15 of their own, giving the Wildcats nine points off turnovers.
“I thought we did a good job of handling [Kentucky’s pressure],” said Chancellor, who suffered his second loss to the Wildcats while at LSU. “Our turnovers came because of decision making.”
The Wildcats, who finished the game with 16 points off giveaways, lead the Southeastern Conference in turnover margin while racking up a league-best 11.5 steals per game.
LSU finished the game with 25 turnovers, its highest total since giving 22 away Dec. 19 against Louisiana Tech.
“Overall, when you hold Kentucky to 49 points, you thought you’d win the basketball game,” Chancellor said. “Their pressure hurt us, but a lot of our turnovers were just useless and unforced turnovers.”
Junior forward LaSondra Barrett led the way for the Lady Tigers with 11 points and 14 rebounds in the contest. The Tigers also outrebounded Kentucky, 42-29.
LSU entered the contest on a two-game conference winning streak, having won 16 of the last 17 meetings with Kentucky.
The loss puts LSU at No. 6 in the conference with just three games left on the slate before the SEC tournament. The Lady Tigers need to finish fourth or better to earn their 10th straight first-round bye in the tournament.
 
 
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Contact Mark Clements at [email protected]