Alabama head coach Rick Moody took his sports jacket off for good at the 16:33 mark of the first half.
For Moody, it was the beginning of a long, torturous night.
Nothing could go right for the Crimson Tide, much to the credit of LSU’s stifling defense that forced Alabama into 22 turnovers and converted those miscues into 28 points in a 85-43 roll over the Tide Thursday night.
Coming into the contest, Alabama led the conference in 3-pointers made per game. But LSU held them to 0-of-9 shooting from the behind the arch, and only 29 percent shooting from the field.
“That’s the first time we’ve been 0-for [whatever] from the 3-point line this year,” Moody said. “We never did get any good looks.”
Seimone Augustus led LSU with 16 points. Forwards Aiysha Smith and Ke-Ke Tardy scored 10 and 11, respectively, to help the No. 4 Lady Tigers improve to 21-1 overall and 9-1 in the Southeastern Conference.
Neither Smith nor Augustus showed any side effects from ankle injuries suffered Sunday afternoon at Mississippi State. The Lady Tigers shot 40 percent from beyond the 3-point line and 48 percent from the field.
LSU put in all 12 available players, and each scored at least two points.
Natasha Gamble led Alabama with 16 points and former LSU center Jamilah Johns tallied 10 for the Crimson Tide (11-12, 1-9).
Bama’s next leading scorer, Shun Hunter, only had six.
“They got in the passing lanes,” Johns said. “We didn’t meet the passes [either].”
Moody said it was a combination of two things that made the LSU defense successful and the Bama offense dreadful.
“They really extended their defense,” Moody said. “We brought a lot of it on ourselves by picking up the dribble in bad places.”
The Lady Tigers were able to stay with the Crimson Tide guards and put pressure on the ball. LSU head coach Sue Gunter said the Lady Tigers did a good job of shutting down the Crimson Tide’s perimeter game.
“I thought that was the key for us,” Gunter said. “For so many years they would light it up from three. We tagged everybody, and it paid off for us.”
On the other hand, LSU was very resourceful with the ball, turning it over just eight times compared to 19 assists. The Lady Tigers lead the nation in assists per game.
“We did not turn it over a lot,” Gunter said. “They did turn it over, and it gave us transition baskets.”
Augustus echoed Gunter’s sentiments as LSU collected 10 steals and blocked seven Alabama shots.
“We wanted to tag them to make sure they didn’t get a shot off,” she said.
LSU got out to a sizzling start that turned into a 44-16 halftime advantage after shooting 53 percent from the field.
The Lady Tigers face No. 20 UC-Santa Barbara tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m. Santa Barbara will be the fifth team out of the Lady Tigers’ last six opponents who have been ranked in the Top 20.