Strong defense proved beneficial once again for the Lady Tigers as No. 2 LSU blew past Arkansas on Thursday night 91-45 in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Holding Arkansas to 29.4 percent shooting, the Lady Tigers (17-1, 4-0 Southeastern Conference) managed to hold their third straight opponent to under 30 percent shooting.
Coach Pokey Chatman said it is good for her to see the defense improve.
“It’s tremendously important to see that area get better and better,” Chatman said. “The reason it’s getting better is because more players are getting more minutes and there’s not a drop-off.”
With four players scoring in double digits, the Lady Tigers jumped out midway through the first half with a layup by junior Seimone Augustus, triggering a 16-0 run to send the Lady Tigers into halftime up 52-26.     
Despite scoring early and often, Augustus said the game never becomes boring with such a blow-out.
“It never takes the fun out of it,” Augustus said. “We always want to go out and have fun, but we also need to go out and compete every night.”
LSU continued to pounce after halftime, opening the second half with a 25-8 run and putting the game away with LSU leading 77-34 with more than 10 minutes to play.
Holding the Lady Razorbacks to just 20 percent shooting in the second half, Chatman said such a strong defensive effort will prove beneficial in the future.
“Somewhere down the line the transition basket may not be there,” Chatman said. “The jump shot may not fall, or we may turn the ball over. And when that happens, we’ll need to lock down on somebody, so it’s nice to see that improve.”
With the dominating defense knocking Arkansas out early, a number of bench players earned significant playing time.
Freshman Quianna Chaney scored five points and added two steals in eight minutes of play, while Florence Williams pulled down six rebounds in nine minutes of play.
Augustus said getting more players involved early can only help the team.
“It’s great to get them in the game,” Augustus said. “They’ll be able to be more comfortable to step in a game down the road.”
With the loss, Arkansas (11-6, 1-5 SEC) has now lost four of their last five games.
“I wish we could have given them a better game,” Arkansas coach Susie Gardner said. “We couldn’t get past them on defense.”
While LSU may have made the victory look easy, junior Wendlyn Jones said there is always something to improve on.
“We have a lot of things we can work on before we’re a great team,” Jones said. “We talk about it everyday in practice and with film. So we still have some things to work on.”
Jones scored 10 points in the win.
LSU will begin preparations for Sunday as the Lady Tigers travel to Tennessee to take on Vanderbilt at 2 p.m. in Memorial Gym.
The Lady Commodores, who twice defeated LSU last season, head into Sunday’s game after a 66-60 loss at Mississippi last night.
“We’ve had our struggles with Vanderbilt in the past,” Chatman said. “But you have to know it’s SEC conference play, so throw every other game out the window, and at 2 o’clock on Sunday, we’ll see.”