LSU associate coach Pokey Chatman compared the defensive plan for Thursday’s game against Arkansas to cutting the head off a snake.
The Lady Tigers decapitated Arkansas’ offensive attack, and the Lady Razorbacks were unable to counter LSU’s three-headed monster as the Lady Tigers cruised to a 92-65 victory.
Coming into the contest, Arkansas forward Shameka Christon was first in the Southeastern Conference and ninth in the nation, averaging 21.3 points per game. Christon was also the SEC’s reigning player of the week thanks to a 28-point performance against No. 16 Georgia on Sunday.
However, with Arkansas’ second-leading scorer Ruby Vaden sidelined by an injury, LSU was able to focus all of its efforts on shutting down the SEC’s leading scorer.
The Lady Tigers quickly forced Christon into three first- half fouls and never allowed the 6-foot-1 forward to get into a rhythm.
“That was part of the gameplan — make a great offensive player defend and get a little more fatigued,” Chatman said. “We talked to our kids about cutting the head off the snake, and that’s not an insult to the rest of the team, but you cut the head off the snake and it causes problems for them.”
LSU guard Doneeka Hodges, who was Christon’s shadow for much of the night, said she was pleased with the Tigers’ defense of Arkansas’ star forward.
“She’s a good player,” Hodges said. “We wanted to come in and try to contain her as much as possible and try and limit her, and for the most part I think we did a good job of that.”
Chatman said she was pleased with the way LSU contained Christon.
“The key with Christon is you have to limit her touches,” Chatman said. “She gets the basketball in her hand and she’s going to make something happen.
“The big thing was team defense. When Christon had the ball, we had four other people in a position to help.”
Christon fouled out with 2:13 remaining in the second half, having scored just 10 points on 2-of-6 shooting.
“I made some stupid fouls,” Christon said. “Coach told me to not play like I had three fouls or four fouls and instead of playing timid, still go out there and play hard. But I think at the same time I was still trying too hard not to foul out and I still did anyway.”
With Arkansas’ star player on the bench for much of the game, LSU’s “big three” of Temeka Johnson, Doneeka Hodges and Seimone Augustus shined offensively.
Johnson finished with 14 points and tied her career high with 15 assists. Augustus had 20 points and 9 rebounds, while Hodges added a game-high 22 points from the field.
Johnson’s 15 assists put her just four shy of the LSU career record set by Chatman from 1987-1991.
After the game Chatman joked about seeing her record fall.
“She’s going to break this record in two years and a half,” Chatman said. “So that’s two things — she’s special, and maybe I wasn’t that good because it took me four years to do it.”
Chatman also said she was impressed by Johnson’s versatile performance against Arkansas.
“What’s special about Temeka is that she was two rebounds away from a triple-double, and I’ve got a 5-foot-3, on a good day with new shoes on, point guard with eight rebounds,” Chatman said.
Augustus also had a solid game, posting her second 20-point performance against Arkansas this season. Augustus scored 22 points against the Lady Razorbacks in LSU’s 73-65 win Jan. 22.
Augustus said she refused to take credit for her play against Arkansas this season.
“It’s all about our team, Augustus said. “I just make the cuts and Temeka gets me the ball or Doneeka gets me the ball.”