The LSU women’s basketball team scored 18 more points and had eight fewer turnovers in its second matchup of the season against Tennessee on Monday night.Those improvements were not enough to propel LSU to its fourth straight win, as the No. 5 Lady Volunteers (25-2, 13-1)  clinched a share of the Southeastern Conference title with their 70-61 victory against the No. 23 Lady Tigers (18-8, 7-7).Tennessee sophomore center Kelley Cain was a one-woman wrecking crew for the 23 minutes she played before fouling out Monday, scoring 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting and seven rebounds to go with her 12 blocks, a new Tennessee record.LSU coach Van Chancellor said in a postgame radio interview that the height of the Lady Volunteers proved to be too much for the Lady Tigers to handle. Cain stands at 6 feet, 6 inches, and sophomore forward Alyssia Brewer is 6 feet, 4 inches.”The difference in the game was their size,” Chancellor said in his postgame radio show. “We got Cain in foul trouble, but Brewer came off the bench for 18 [points]. It was too much and too strong for us inside.”Chancellor said he liked the effort the team showed in scoring points and taking care of the ball despite the loss. LSU committed 10 turnovers to Tennessee’s seven and shot 39 percent from the floor to 46 percent for Tennessee.”With their size, I thought if we scored 61 points, we could have had a shot to win,” he said. “The difference is they didn’t turn the ball over much tonight.”Tennessee scored 44 points in the paint Monday and led by as many as 19 points in the second half. A 10-0 run by the Lady Volunteers with 9:09 to play put LSU in its deepest hole of the game.Another dagger in the Lady Tigers’ quest to extend their winning streak was Tennessee’s perfect 10-for-10 from the free-throw line. The Lady Volunteers had been averaging 66 percent free throw shooting this season.”They have not been a great free-throw shooting team all year, but they didn’t miss a one,” Chancellor said. “And we only had one less offensive rebound than they did … We just couldn’t counter the big post player inside.”Chancellor highlighted the performances of senior guard Allison Hightower and junior guard Katherine Graham. Hightower led the Lady Tigers with 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting, and Graham scored all of her 13 points in the second half on 6-of-13 from the floor.”Katherine Graham was outstanding, and Hightower was really good,” Chancellor said. “We just didn’t rebound out of the 5-hole tonight.”Hightower converted a 3-pointer that kept LSU breathing as the game wound down. Two 3-pointers by freshman guard Adrienne Webb cut the deficit to nine points with 1:53 remaining, but it was too little and too late.It was not a blowout early, as the teams traded baskets for about half of the first period. The game was tied at 12-12 with 9:34 left in the first half, but Tennessee never trailed after that point.LSU returns home to the PMAC for its final two regular season games against Arkansas on Thursday and Mississippi State on Sunday.”The game of the year is Thursday night against Arkansas,” Chancellor said. “It’s a must-win.”–Contact Rachel Whittaker at [email protected]