Junior Seimone Augustus scored 22 points while freshman Syliva Fowles added 13 rebounds as the No. 1 ranked Lady Tigers blew past Ole Miss Thursday night, 82-58, in Oxford, Miss.
LSU (20-1, 7-0 Southeastern Conference) earned their seventh straight victory with the win.
“It was a tremendous effort all the way around,” coach Pokey Chatman said. “I thought Seimone stuck with it when she struggled, and Temeka [Johnson] did a tremendous job of controlling the tempo both offensively and defensively.”
Johnson finished just one point shy of a double-double, totaling nine points and 11 assists in the victory.
With the loss, Ole Miss (15-6, 5-3 SEC) snapped its four game winning streak.
Thriving with both strong offense and defense, LSU managed to shoot 48 percent in the first half. A 22-foot buzzer-beater at the half by freshman Quianna Chaney gave the Tigers a 40-26 lead at the break.
Defensively, the Lady Tigers held Ole Miss to 28 percent shooting as the Lady Rebels were only able to pull with seven points in the second half.
Chatman said despite the victory, she was especially pleased with several areas of the Lady Tigers’ game.
“It’s an area that’s often overlooked,” Chatman said. “But I thought our inbounds-underneath offense was very efficient tonight.”
Keeping Ole Miss to just 58 points, LSU managed to hold the Lady Rebels to their fourth-lowest point total of the season. The 58 points also marked the Lady Rebels lowest scoring total at home this season.
Chatman said Fowles, who earned 14 points to go along with her 13 rebounds, did a good job of establishing herself early.
“I can’t say enough about Syliva, how she established herself in the paint,” Chatman said. “It was just a tremendous effort all around by the entire team.”
The Lady Tigers also earned a spark off the bench as senior Florence Williams put up four assists and two points in 13 minutes of play.
“I was pleased with the way Florence stepped in there,” Chatman said. “She played extremely good basketball.”
The LSU bench combined for 25 points in the victory.
Senior Carletta Brown led Ole Miss with 17 points, while Arminitie Price added 15 points and six rebounds in the losing effort.
“We’re going to reflect on this one a little bit,” Chatman said. “We just need to clean up a couple of things.”
The Lady Tigers will now cap off their Mississippi tour Sunday in Starkville as the Lady Tigers take on Mississippi State.
“There were so many good things we could take from this game,” Chatman said. “We’re going to talk about it, point some things out, let the team marinate in it a little bit, and then concentrate on Mississippi State.”
LSU will then return home for the much anticipated matchup with Tennessee next Thursday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.