The No. 2-ranked LSU women’s basketball team extended its winning streak to eight games Thursday, beating Louisville 65-46 to capture the womenscollegehoops.com Classic championship.
The Tigers (8-0) had trouble with the Cardinals early, trailing 7-6 with 15:30 left in the first half, but went on a 21-2 run to take an 18-point lead into halftime.
Freshman guard Seimone Augustus scored 16 points, grabbed eight rebounds and had five assists to lead LSU. Augustus, who earned tournament MVP honors after the game, said the team did a better job of attacking the zone defense.
“We had penetration from the perimeter players that opened it up for DeTrina (White) and Aiysha (Smith) to get the short jumpers and easy layups under the goal,” she said.
LSU head coach Sue Gunter said the team shot and executed well for the second night in a row, but felt turnovers hurt her team, particularly in the second half. LSU shot 47 percent from the field and committed 18 turnovers in the game.
“I really felt like the first half was probably the best half of basketball we’ve played all year,” Gunter said. “Then for whatever reason, we come back in the second half and we can’t sustain anything.”
Louisville cut into LSU’s second half lead in the first five minutes, going on a 14-2 run. The Cardinals made the deficit as close as 10 before the Tigers went on a 9-0 run to make the score 63-44 with 3:44 to play.
“Give Louisville credit, they came with a lot of energy,” Gunter said. “I think they wanted us to rush our shots or take bad shots, but we didn’t take many bad shots.”
LSU’s DeTrina White added a double-double for the second night in a row, throwing in 10 points and 14 rebounds. White also had two blocks, including one on Lori Nero in the second half with Louisville threatening to come back.
“That got us on a little run, kind of picked us up,” White said.
Guard Roneeka Hodges had 13 points for LSU, while Aiysha Smith added 9 points.
Gunter said the other team made a run because it played more physical in the second half and went to the boards better than LSU. She said playing against players like Nero was a good test because the team will face opponents like her each week in SEC play.
Nero and Sara Nord were the top scorers for the Cardinals (3-4), scoring 15 and 14 points respectively. Both earned all-tournament honors, along with White, Smith and Ohio’s Andrea Johnson.
LSU’s next game is against Southwest Texas at home Saturday at 1 p.m.