LSU used a strong second-half run to move past Maryland 76-61 Tuesday night in the PMAC and advance to the Sweet 16 of the women’s NCAA basketball Tournament.
The Lady Tigers travel to Seattle to face Texas, the No. 1 seed of the West region on Sunday, in search of their fourth Elite 8 appearance. The win sends LSU to the Sweet 16 for the eighth time in school history.
Led by sophomore Seimone Augustus, who poured in 26 points on 12-of-20 shooting, the Lady Tigers (25-7) fought back from a 28-27 halftime deficit in front of a crowd of 6,192.
Augustus, who earned Associated Press third team All-American honors, said her performance was a product of her teammates setting good screens to get her open.
“I just made the right cuts and luckily I was on tonight,” she said.
Maryland coach Brenda Frese said Augustus gave the Lady Terrapins trouble all night, and she compared Augustus to Duke All-American Alana Beard.
“[Augustus] is definitely an All-American,” Frese said. “She does so many things and makes the game so effortless. She’s a fun player to watch.”
LSU acting coach Pokey Chatman said she was impressed with the win, particularly how the team battled in the second half and only committed eight turnovers in the game, while Maryland had 17.
“The first half we went to the locker room and we shot a dismal 35 percent, but no one hung their head,” Chatman said.
Point guard Temeka Johnson was able to break through Maryland’s zone in the second half, getting open looks for Augustus and Doneeka Hodges, with the Lady Tigers outscoring Maryland 49-33 that half. Johnson had 12 points and 12 assists, matching the assist record for a single game she set in Sunday’s win against Austin Peay.
Also contributing was forward Tillie Willis, who finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds and Wendlyn Jones (10 points, nine rebounds).
“Tillie’s had a huge month in terms of practice,” Chatman said. “You know, we chart deflections and I think Tillie gets more deflections in the post than the players in the perimeter. She’s battling opponents that outweigh her by 25 or 30 pounds. She gets the deflection but Temeka gets the steal. That’s the thing that sometimes goes unmentioned.
“11 boards, that’s huge, and she’s stepped up in two big games and we’ll need that.”
Chatman said the Lady Tigers have gotten great post play in the first two games of the tournament and downplayed any notion of the inside players having a lack of confidence.
“There’s no need for motivation because they’re always reading about their lack of production, but that’s because I think people look at total points,” Chatman said. “I don’t think there ever was a confidence issue. We kind of have an inside joke about it.”
LSU also shot 56 percent and converted 12 of 14 free throws in the second half, and took its biggest lead of the game when Johnson scored on a layup in the final minutes.
Maryland freshman guard Shay Doron, who led UM with 23 points off the bench, said the tandem of Augustus and Johnson was too much to handle.
“We tried to go box and one on Augustus, but she and [Temeka Johnson] killed us. it’s good to have more than one go-to player,” Doron said.
The Lady Tigers opened the game on a 12-4 run, but the Lady Terrapins (18-13) quickly climbed back and took an 18-16 lead with 6:33 left in the first half. They led by as many as four in the half before Hodges hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to cut the halftime lead to one.
“It was a rough stretch for us at the beginning,” Frese said. “I think we just had to get our nerves settled. Once we were able to start controlling ourselves in the first half, we got real aggressive by attacking the basket and drawing some fouls and getting to the free-throw line. It was nice to get that burst of energy and relax going into halftime.”