One minute into the Lady Tigers’ season finale against No. 3 South Carolina, junior guard Rina Hill hit a layup to give LSU the lead.
Three minutes later, Hill gave LSU (9-20, 3-13 Southeastern Conference) a 4-3 advantage.
From then on, the Gamecocks (28-1, 16-0 SEC) dominated the Lady Tigers in a 75-39 blowout win.
“I thought our effort on the defensive end at times was good,” said LSU coach Nikki Fargas in a radio interview. “We just did not reward ourselves, but this is a game that is played on both sides of the ball.”
After LSU’s first four points, South Carolina went on a 11-4 run to close the first quarter with a 14-8 lead and never looked back as the Gamecocks’ senior guard Tiffany Mitchell shined in her last home game.
The two-time SEC Player of the Year notched a season-high 24 points to go along with a game-high five assists and three steals for South Carolina.
“[Mitchell] just played unbelievable, she played like an All-American candidate,” Fargas said. “She did a really nice job at stretching our zone and really getting the pace of the game going as far as the three ball going, for her team. The rest of her team really fueled of that.”
While the Gamecocks’ bench exploded for 38 points, Hill and junior forward Alexis Hyder combined for 26 of the Lady Tigers’ points. Hillthe only player to start all 29 of LSU’s games, scored 16 points on a 6-for-14 shooting clip.
“[Hill] worked extremely hard, she played 40 minutes and did really nice job controlling the tempo,” Fargas said. “She only had one turnover for us tonight. [Hyder] was a go-to for us tonight.”
Hyder contributed 10 points and three rebounds.
The rest of the Lady Tigers shot just 3-of-20 from the field for 13 points, including only two points from the bench.
South Carolina dominated LSU in almost every statistical category on both ends of the floor.
The Gamecocks forced 20 turnovers while the Lady Tigers recovered nine.
Offensively, South Carolina shot 51.2 percent from the floor and recorded 15 assists compared with LSU’s 28.9 shooting percentage and eight assists.
Although LSU managed to shoot an impressive 78.6 percent from the free throw line, the Gamecocks eclipsed the Lady Tigers with a 21-of-26 clip.
“When you are on the road, you have got to shoot a better field goal percentage than what we did,” Fargas said. “We had some good looks at the basket, we actually took two more shots than them. We just weren’t able to connect on them.”