No. 14 LSU looked to finish its short road trip on a high note at No. 24 Vanderbilt, but a second-half surge by the Commodores led to a 79-70 loss for LSU.
The first half proved to be everything the Lady Tigers (14-4, 3-2 Southeastern Conference) were expecting: a physical contest that involved its fair share of scoring for both squads.
Coming off a career performance against Missouri on Thursday night, LSU senior guard Jeanne Kenney got off to a slow start in Nashville, Tenn.
The Baton Rouge native failed to score a point until she made two consecutive free throws with 1:19 remaining in the first half. Instead, she contributed to four rebounds before halftime. Kenney finished the contest with nine points after shooting 2-of-10 from the field.
With Kenney cooled off, sophomore guard Danielle Ballard took command, scoring 12 points and getting seven rebounds in the first half. Her early performance kept LSU in the contest despite the fact that another senior, forward Theresa Plaisance, only had four points before halftime.
LSU coach Nikki Caldwell said her squad could have done more in the first half.
“I thought we had some entries we could’ve put inside,” Caldwell said. “There were times we missed our post-ups, and we needed to go inside with those looks a little bit more.”
After the break, though, the Commodores came out of the locker room white-hot.
Vanderbilt (16-3, 5-1 SEC) went on an 8-2 run to open the second half, as senior guards Jasmine Lister and Christina Foggie led the scoring throughout the contest. The duo combined for 44 points, seven rebounds, 10 assists and four steals in the victory.
“The one thing you’ve got to be aware of at all times, and we said this time-in and time-out while we were preparing for Vanderbilt, is that you’ve got to be aware of where Foggie and Lister are at all times,” Caldwell said. “We missed that coverage, and we didn’t do a great job of defending those two players.”
The Commodores held on to a commanding 19-point lead with 8:19 remaining in the contest, but the Lady Tigers gave one last effort before finally falling.
LSU, led by Ballard and Plaisance, cut the Vanderbilt lead to seven with roughly two minutes remaining in the second half. The Lady Tigers went on a 19-6 run, but Lister and Foggie both scored critical baskets in the final minutes to seal the Commodore victory.
Ballard finished with 23 points after shooting 9-of-17 from the field. Plaisance ended with 16 points and seven rebounds.
Vanderbilt shot 52.2 percent from the field, 63.6 percent from 3-point range and hit 80 percent of its free throws. The Lady Tigers couldn’t defend against the efficient Commodore offense.
“They did a nice job of really establishing and giving the right people the right shots at the right time,” Caldwell said. “They didn’t force anything, they played their game, they shared the basketball, they did a nice job of knocking down their free throws. We’ve got to be disciplined in our half-court defense and not miss assignments.”