Top-ranked LSU held Mississippi State (14-8, 3-6 SEC) scoreless for the final 13:56 of the first half in a 67-40 victory on Sunday. The nation’s top scorer, senior guard Tan White finished with 20 points on 6-of-23 shooting. However she had only two points in the first half.
White scored 47 points against No. 21 Vanderbilt Thursday in the most productive game by a Division I women’s player this year. Against LSU (21-1, 8-0 SEC), the Lady Dawgs proved to be no match for its No. 1 ranked opponent as LSU led 37-9 at halftime.
“We got up 9-8 early and the game was on the line. We had an intentional foul and they had a lay-up in transition, MSU coach Sharon Fanning said. “All of a sudden we were down big. We had some unnecessary turnovers, and they were just getting all of the rebounds early.”
Fanning also said that the week off the team has will help them improve on some things that the Lady Dawgs are lacking.
LSU junior guard Seimone Augustus, the SEC’s second-leading scorer, had eight of her 18 points during a 35-3 stretch which broke the game wide open.
The Tigers scored the final 29 points of the half and shot 55 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes.
“As long as my team is executing and everything is going well, I feel that I’m going to have a great game,” Augustus said.
The Bulldogs couldn’t get closer than 20 in the second half, and have now lost five straight and six of seven since starting the season 13-2.
MSU showed little resemblance to the team that took No. 21 Vanderbilt to double overtime three days earlier.
The Bulldogs shot 4-of-29 in the first half, missed their last 18 attempts and scored its final points on senior guard Ebonie Ferguson’s 3-pointer with 13:57 until halftime.
“It’s like a shark in the water when they see that blood,” Fanning said. “I don’t think the halftime score reflects how good they are or how bad we looked from those stats. I think we panicked.”
The anticipated match up of the conference’s top two scorers never came to fruition.
White, who entered leading the nation in scoring with a 22.6-point average, said fatigue wasn’t an issue after the quick turnaround from the double-overtime loss.
“I don’t really think I lost anything,” White said. “I just didn’t come out as hot as I was the other night.”
She was a non-factor in the first half with two points on 1-for-11 shooting.
LSU’s defense entered leading the league in two key categories, allowing teams just 51.7 points and 34 percent shooting. The Tigers held MSU to 26 percent shooting.
The Lady Bulldogs will hit the road for their next game, travelling to the O’Connell Center on the campus of the University of Florida. Tip-off is scheduled for Sunday at 3 p.m.