Temeka Johnson made sure LSU won its third consecutive WomensCollegeHoops.com Classic on Thursday night against Richmond.
Johnson recorded a double-double in the 76-53 victory, scoring 21 points and dishing out 12 assists. For her efforts, Johnson was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.
“Temeka had an exceptional night,” said LSU coach Sue Gunter. “When Temeka really gets in that mode, she’s tough. Her quickness is just amazing. When she’s shooting the ball that well, I don’t think there’s much better. When she’s playing like that, I would be hard pressed to take any other point guard in the country over her.”
Seimone Augustus started the game even though a knee injury knocked her out of Wednesday night’s contest against Kent State. Augustus played 22 minutes against the Spiders, scoring eight points.
“It’s still kind of sore,” Augustus said. “I feel kind of heavy.”
Three Lady Tigers were named to the All-Tournament team. Augustus and Johnson headlined the team and teammate Doneeka Hodges also earned a spot.
Hodges scored 18 points against the Spiders on 6-of-17 shooting. She shot 33 percent behind the 3-point line.
“If they want to give up the outside shots, I think it was our duty to come out and be able to knock down some shots,” Hodges said. “Maybe after that, it would open up the paint a little bit. So, we just came out and tried to execute the best that we could, and we came up on the good end.”
LSU got another big effort off the bench from Scholanda Hoston. Hoston came into the game to replace Augustus and scored 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting.
LSU shot 55.4 percent from the field. The Lady Tigers limited Richmond to 35.1 percent shooting and forced the Spiders into 19 turnovers.
The Lady Tigers continued to improve offensively, especially protecting the basketball, with only 13 turnovers in the contest.
“We cleaned up our act a little bit,” Gunter said. “Over the last two games, we improved as far as our turnovers are concerned. We had a lot of assists tonight. I thought we played pretty well. We’re certainly not where we have to be, but I feel a little bit better about where we’re going right now.”
Kate Flavin, one of two Richmond players named to the All-Tournament team, scored a team-high 16 points in the contest. The Lady Tigers held Richmond’s other honored member, Amber Goppert, to four points.
With 2:16 to play in the first half, Richmond went on an 8-0 run to cut LSU’s lead to 31-23. But the Lady Tigers finished the half strong, led by seven points from Hodges alone and took a 38-25 lead into halftime.
Richmond (6-2) set the tone to start the second half. The Spiders scored five straight to open the half, capped by a 3-pointer by Araceli Gil. Gil made five 3-pointers against the Lady Tigers.
LSU called a timeout after the Spiders’ run and the team responded with a 13-0 run of their own. Johnson scored 11 of the 13 points during the run as LSU ran away with the game.
“We came out and promptly gave up five points,” Gunter said. “That’s bang-bang-bang before you could turn around. But once we got focused, [we] did some very nice things. We pushed the ball very well.”
Kent State’s Andrea Csaszar also was named to the All-Tournament team. In two games, Csaszar scored 34 points and helped the Golden Flashes defeat Arkansas State, 67-63 in the consolation game on Thursday.
No. 16 LSU (7-2) plays again on Saturday against Southeastern Louisiana University in the PMAC at 11:30 a.m.
“It was two good wins for us, it really was,” Gunter said. “Now, we’ve got to turn around and play Southeastern. We need to go out and we need to execute and do the things that we’re supposed to do against Southeastern.”