LSU’s strongest link nearly became its weakest Thursday night.
Despite only hitting on 10-of-21 free throws, the No. 4 Lady Tigers (19-1, 7-1) showed resiliency and grit, pulling off a blue-collar 69-66 road victory over No. 15 South Carolina in Columbia, S.C., in a game they never trailed.
“It was a hard fought game,” LSU head coach Sue Gunter said. “We had a very poor night shooting the free throws. Normally we’re a good free throw shooting team, but that didn’t happen tonight.”
Seimone Augustus led the Tigers with 26 points on 11-of-18 shooting. Aiysha Smith added 16 and forward Ke-Ke Tardy pitched in 10 as LSU stayed just one game behind No. 3 Tennessee for the Southeastern Conference lead.
Petra Ujhelyi led USC with a career-high 24 points. Jocelyn Penn, the nation’s fourth leading scorer with 25 points per game, had 15 points.
“[Ujhelyi] really played well,” Gunter said. “I thought she was outstanding. She hit off the perimeter, and she boarded very, very well. She was impressive.”
The game had two distinct halves.
South Carolina only scored four points in the first 12 minutes of the contest and went through a scoring drought eight minutes long thanks to LSU’s suffocating defense. This helped the Lady Tigers get out to a 17-4 lead and a 31-21 lead at intermission.
While the first half was a game of attrition, neither team could seem to miss in the second half. The Lady Gamecocks used 62 percent shooting in the second half to pull to a 51-51 tie with under seven minutes.
“I have to give our kids a lot of credit,” Gunter said. “They bent, but never broke.”
LSU persevered to go up 67-61 in the final minute. But the Lady Tigers fouled South Carolina in the act of a 3-point shot, and the Gamecocks took advantage, nailing all three free throws.
“You knew Carolina was going to make a run at some point in time, they are too good of a team,” Gunter said. “I thought we had ample opportunities in the first half to put the game away. We were just not able to push [the lead] out there.”
After two Lady Tigers missed the front end of consecutive one-and-one free throw opportunities, South Carolina drove the floor and hit a shot to close the gap to 67-66.
LSU then inbounded the ball to Augustus, its most dependable free-thrower of the night. Augustus knocked down both free throws with seven seconds remaining.
South Carolina’s final three attempt fell short.