The LSU Lady Tigers reached into the magic hat again on Sunday against Georgia, but were unable to pull anything out other than a rabbit.
The Lady Tigers fought back from a 13-point deficit late in the second half to tie the game but fell short in Athens, 80-74. The Lady Tigers used a similar comeback effort last week – trailing by 16 at Arkansas – to defeat the Lady ‘Backs, 73-65.
With the loss, LSU’s 15-game winning streak comes to an end. No. 12 LSU (16-3, 4-1 Southeastern Conference) lost in coach Sue Gunter’s 1,000th game as a head coach.
Cold shooting plagued the Lady Tigers. LSU led by nine points in the first half, but the Lady Tigers went ice cold from the field, shooting only 32 percent. LSU shot better percentage-wise from 3-point range – 8-of-22 for 36 percent – than they did from the field.
Even though the Lady Tigers outrebounded Georgia, 47-36, LSU could not convert many of its second-chance opportunities. Of the 47 rebounds, 21 came on the offensive end of the court.
“We didn’t make layups [and] we had some defensive breakdowns,” said LSU associate coach Bob Starkey in the post-game radio interview. “We just had a whole lot of mistakes that you just cannot make against a team like Georgia.”
Georgia, on the other hand, shot 26-of-57 (45.6 percent) from the field and 85 percent at the free-throw line.
The Lady Dogs took control of the game late in the first half. LSU held a late 30-28 lead, but Georgia capitalized on a couple of LSU miscues to finish the half on a 6-0 run.
LSU stumbled out of the gate in the second half and Georgia took advantage with a 10-2 run to extend the lead to double digits, 44-32.
“I thought that was a huge swing,” Starkey said. “I don’t think they were playing with a lot of confidence early. I think we certainly found a way to give them some confidence.”
But LSU did not go down easy. Led by two consecutive 3-point buckets by Doneeka Hodges, LSU rallied to get within one point with a 12-0 run. The Lady Tigers kept the game within striking distance as the teams traded buckets down the stretch, and LSU ripped off a 6-0 run to tie the game at 63 with 4:25 to play.
LSU again tied the game at 70 with Hodges’ sixth 3-pointer of the night with 2:49 in the second half, but Georgia’s Janese Hardrick countered with a 3-point basket of her own to push the Lady Dogs back in front.
With less than a minute to play, Seimone Augustus nailed a 3-pointer with a hand in her face to retie the game, 73-73. But after Christie Thomas went to the line for Georgia and made a couple of free throws to extend the lead to two points, Augustus missed an open base-line jumper that could have tied the game at 75 with 21 seconds to play.
Georgia then converted 5-of-6 free throws to seal the victory.
“We never could get over the top,” Starkey said. “The thing we kept saying on the bench was that if we can get the lead on this, we think we would have made Georgia play a little bit differently. We just didn’t quite have enough character to get it over the top here.”
Augustus scored 24 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the Lady Tigers. It was the fourth straight game she scored 20 points or more. In addition, Augustus shot 9-of-9 from the free-throw line to extend her free throws-made streak to 28.
Hodges made 6-of-15 from 3-point range and scored 22 points on the evening. Sophomore Wendlyn Jones chipped in with her first career double double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Starkey said winning two-of-three on the road trip is not good enough if the Lady Tigers cannot get anything out of the loss.
“The bottom line is we had several opportunities to win this ball game and just didn’t get it done,” Starkey said. “That’s what we’re going to have to live with. As coach Gunter just got done telling the team, the most important thing that we’ve got to do is we’ve got to try to find a way to learn from it so it doesn’t go completely to waste.”
Hardrick paced Georgia with a career-high 25 points on 8-of-13 shooting. Christie Thomas gave the Lady Tigers fits in the paint with 20 points and seven rebounds.
No. 17 Georgia (14-5, 3-3 SEC) avoided its first four-game losing streak with coach Andy Landers at the helm with the win.
LSU takes a week off before returning home to face South Carolina next Sunday at the PMAC.