For LSU’s Ke-Ke Tardy, Saturday’s game against Texas was personal.
The senior forward still remembered the 65-63 loss last year in Austin and used it as motivation to help the No. 2 Tigers fight back from a nine-point deficit in the second half to run away from No. 15 Texas 76-58.
“I know I made crucial mistakes down the stretch and I wanted to make amends,” Tardy said.
Scoring nine points off the bench, Tardy and her teammates outscored the Longhorns (6-3) 43-12 over the final 14 minutes of regulation. The win was LSU’s first against a major opponent this year.
“We have the confidence that we can play well,” Tardy said. “It’s just a matter of getting the team on one page.”
With the first half a back-and-forth grudge match, neither team could find an advantage, but after a few LSU turnovers, Texas found a seam and stretched its lead to as many as eight. The Tigers edged back and had the lead down to five when guard Doneeka Hodges hit a 25-foot three pointer at the buzzer to give Texas only a 31-28 lead.
Though LSU shot 51 percent from the field, 12 turnovers hurt them. UT out-rebounded LSU 22 to 16 in the half.
“The first half we were trying to play more like Texas and they’re better at playing their game,” LSU head coach Sue Gunter said. “We didn’t make them guard us.”
LSU trailed 45-36 with 14:11 to play, but went on a 15-1 run over the next six minutes. Aiysha Smith and DeTrina White led a more physical attack down low during the run, with both players taking the ball to the basket more.
Smith scored 19 points and White added 16 points and 13 boards. LSU (10-0) also got more production from freshman Seimone Augustus, who scored six points in the second half. Guard Temeka Johnson also added 10 points.
The full-court press really sparked the second half rally, Gunter said, and made the team more comfortable. It opened up things for them on both ends of the floor, she said.
“It got them out of their rhythm and got us going,” Gunter said. “Not only did we make them hurry up and do some things they didn’t want to do, but we were able to convert once we got a turnover.”
Gunter said having so much depth on the bench helped LSU pull away at the end, and she never hesitated to substitute.
Texas forward Heather Schreiber led all scorers with 20 points, and her 8 of 13 shooting performance helped the Longhorns hang around for most of the game.
UT head coach Jody Conradt said the youth and inexperience in her team showed up in the second half. She said the team lost its patience on both ends of the floor.
“It’s really hard to identify why the wheels flew off at that point,” Conradt said of the second half collapse. “Everybody sort of went off on their own agenda and started to do something to save the day.”
The Longhorns shot only 38 percent from the floor in the game and went nearly four minutes without scoring late in the second half.
“I felt like we could compete with them and I’m disappointed that the score doesn’t reflect that we did compete with them for a good portion of this game,” Conradt said.
The win was the 10th straight for LSU, and the team is off to its best start since opening the season 14-0 in 1996-97. That year, the Tigers went to the Sweet 16 and finished ranked No. 9.