The LSU women’s basketball team looked to bounce back from a second-straight Southeastern Conference loss against Vanderbilt on Thursday, but instead fell 53-45 to No. 20 Florida at the O’Connell Center Sunday afternoon.
The Lady Tigers (7-11,1-4 SEC) missed eight of their nine field goals attempts in the fourth quarter. With Florida (15-3, 3-2 SEC) leading by three points from a 9-0 run with a minute left, the Gators made five free throws to take an eight-point win.
“I thought our team really tried to execute the game plan, and did so for three and a half quarters,” said LSU coach Nikki Fargas. “They showed a lot of heart and showed a lot of togetherness out there. We have been talking about maintaining that mental energy and controlling the controllables and staying positive with each other out there, and I thought we did that for the most part.”
LSU used a 6-0 run in the first quarter to take a 10-5 advantage, but the Gators came back with a 5-0 run of their own to tie the game, 10-10, with 1:25 left in the quarter. Senior forward Anne Pedersen scored to give LSU a two point lead at the end of the first.
The Lady Tigers lead the third quarter by four, 31-27. Florida guard Eleanna Christinaki made a three-pointer to get the Gators a one point advantage, 31-30. The Lady Tigers eventually led by 38-33 at the end of the third, but the Gators came out on top in the fourth quarter resulting in a win over LSU.
LSU junior forward Alexis Hyder tallied her fifth double-double of the season and led the team with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Hyder made five of her 11 field goal attempts and three of her six free throws while notching three assists and two steals. Junnior guard Jasmine Rhodes also reached double figures with 10 points while totaling four rebounds, an assist and a steal.
Sophomore guard Jenna Deemer was still missing from the action as she remained in Baton Rouge with an illness. Deemer leads the Lady Tigers in points per game with 10.1 points.
Florida shot 50 percent (19-39) of their field goals and made 11 of their 26 free-throws. Christinaki led the Gators with 15 points. Guard Ronni Williams also scored double digits with 11 points and led the team with nine rebounds.
“I give a lot of credit to Florida,” added Fargas. “They have a really good basketball team. They have seasoned players. They played when they needed to, to gain the momentum and obviously put themselves in position to win.”
The Lady Tigers will play Arkansas at The Pete Mavarich Center in Baton Rouge on Thursday at 7 p.m.
You can reach Jourdan Riley on Twitter @jourdanr_TDR