Lady Tigers lose title game to Vanderbilt
With only seven players dressed to play, the LSU women’s basketball team solidified its place in the NCAA tournament with its performance in Nashville, Tenn., at the Southeastern Conference tournament.
The Lady Tigers reached the final game of the tournament after an upset Saturday of top-seeded and third-ranked Tennessee, 81-80.
LSU could not muster up the strength to finish its third game in as many days. The team ran out of gas Sunday against No. 6 Vanderbilt in the championship game and did not score a basket in the final 7:18 of the game, losing 63-48.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever had a group that played any harder or laid it out on the line any more than that group of kids did,” said LSU head coach Sue Gunter. “They just performed unbelievably well.”
Forward Roneeka Hodges played limited minutes throughout the tournament due to leg cramps. The five remaining Lady Tigers each played more than 30 minutes per game.
“In that last five minutes of the Vanderbilt game, there just was no reserve left,” Gunter said. “They were spent.”
Point guard Temeka Johnson, who did not sit out a single minute of the three games, tried to will the Lady Tigers to victory against Vanderbilt, leading the team with a career-high 22 points.
“They gained a lot of fans,” Gunter said. “I think they gained a lot of notoriety. They certainly stood up and were counted.”
Johnson was named to the All-Tournament team after averaging 17.7 points, 6.3 assists and 3.0 steals in three games, and hitting the game-winner against Tennessee with 4.1 seconds remaining.
Against Vanderbilt, the Lady Tigers trailed by two points, 28-26, at the half, but shot only 30 percent (10-of-30) from the field in the second half.
LSU took the lead, 38-37, with just over 12 minutes to play in the second half before an 8-2 run put the Lady Commodores in front for the remainder of the game.
Gunter said the team might have had a better chance to win if it had one or two more players.
“As many games as we’ve played all year with that number of players,” she said. “We were just out of juice, that’s all there is to it.”
With the victory against Tennessee, LSU strengthened its position in the NCAA tournament.
“Considering where we were when we went to Nashville and what occurred up there,” Gunter said. “You know you’ve bettered your chances, but when you don’t know where you were it’s kind of hard to guess.”
Gunter said she does not know what to expect in the seeding process, which will be announced Mar. 10, just five days before the tournament begins.
Gunter also said she would rather have a six seed than a five seed to avoid playing against the top seed in the region.
“We could be a ten, nine or eight [seed],” she said. “You just don’t know. I would say the range somewhere between four and eight is realistic.”
The exhausted players will get three days of rest before resuming practice, Gunter said.
Gunter said there is not much for the players to do until they find out who they will play in the tournament.
“We’ll just go back and refresh ourselves on everything,” she said. “There’s nothing we can do except try to maintain our level of conditioning.”
Ronnie Richard