In front of the largest crowd the PMAC hosted for an LSU women’s basketball this season, the Lady Tigers fed off the environment and channeled it into their efforts on the hardwood Tuesday.
Putting on a show for 5,504 fans in attendance, including about 2,500 elementary school students, the Lady Tigers (5-4, 0-0 Southeastern Conference) throttled Texas Southern University, 86-36.
LSU coach Nikki Fargas said the large crowd helped spark her team’s 50-point victory, which was highlighted by freshman guard Shanice Norton’s team-leading 15 points.
“We had an amazing crowd today with the Baton Rouge community coming out and supporting us on the field trip day,” Fargas said in a news release. “It was loud in here. They were definitely a spark for us. It was a fun environment for our team to play in.”
The Lady Tigers dressed just eight healthy players, but there were no signs of fatigue plaguing them on either end of the court.
With its most suffocating defensive performance of the year, LSU forced 26 Texas Southern turnovers and allowed the opposing Lady Tigers (1-4, 0-0 Southwestern Athletic Conference) to convert just 31.7 percent of their field goal attempts.
“Went back to our five defense and talked about really taking away the strong side when the ball is put on the wing,” Fargas said in a news release. “It needed to look like five people were defending the basketball and invite the skip. I thought that our back line did a nice job of really trying to be physical and disrupt any easy entry passes.”
LSU jumped out to a quick 13-point lead by the end of the first quarter and never looked back as it continued pouring it in on TSU, extending the lead to 24 at halftime, 48-24.
Sophomore guard Jenna Deemer was locked in from the opening tip, scoring seven of her 14 points in the first quarter before passing the scoring torch to junior guard Jasmine Rhodes, who provided a spark off the bench after Deemer picked up her second foul in the first quarter.
Rhodes converted six of her eight field goal attempts for 13 points off the bench.
The Lady Tigers came out of the locker room after halftime with the same intensity they started the game with, holding Texas Southern to four third-quarter points and a total of 12 in the second half.
“We stayed motivated and made sure we had each other’s backs,” Norton said in a news release. “If we continue to do the same thing, then the rest of the season will be easy for us.”
Meanwhile, the LSU offense continued scoring at will. In a well-rounded team performance, five players eclipsed 12 points, and the team combined to shoot 49.2 percent from the field, including a 42.9 percent clip from behind the arc.
“Offensively, we executed,” Fargas said in a news release. “We made the extra passes. We had 17 assists on the day with limited turnovers. That’s a team that’s playing together and that’s how we want the team to play.”