Lady Tigers knock off Houston

LSU’s eighth-ranked women’s basketball team had 11 of its 12 players score at least two points and grab at least one rebound en route to a 77-46 victory over Houston on Thursday night at Hofheinz Pavilion.

The Lady Tigers (5-2) also used 21-2 run to end the first half after a slow start to put the Cougars (2-6) away.

Houston led for the first four minutes of the game before LSU took its first lead, 6-5. The score the went back and forth before the Lady Tigers used an 8-0 run to take a 17-11 lead. Houston clawed back and cut the lead to 20-17 before LSU ended the half on the 21-2 run and took a 41-19 lead into the locker room at the break.

Sylvia Fowles led four starters in double figures with 19 points, while Quianna Chaney and Ashley Thomas added 11 points each and RaShonta LeBlanc had 10 points.

“We played well tonight. We had kind of a slow start, but the game picked up and we got going,” LSU head coach Van Chancellor said. “Our first unit played extremely well. Our defense was good and we shot the ball better tonight. Those are the areas we have to improve on to get to where we want to be.”

The game was Chancellor’s 600th as a collegiate head coach.

The Lady Tigers shot 45.3 percent from the floor in the game, including 59.3 percent in the first half. LSU’s defense held Houston to 33.3 percent shooting from the floor, forced 25 turnovers and collected 16 steals.

The Lady Tigers converted the 25 Houston turnovers into 29 points.

Marian Whitfield scored seven points off the bench for LSU and Erica White had six points in a starting effort.

LSU won the battle of the boards, 45-39, and were led by Mesha Williams and Fowles with seven each.

After taking control of the game in the first half, LSU opened the second half with a 9-2 run to take a 50-23 lead. The Lady Tigers largest lead of the game, 35 points, came at the 7:17 mark.

LSU continues its road swing with a trip to New Orleans on Sunday for a 4 p.m. CST tip against Tulane at Fogelman Arena.



GAME NOTES

Sylvia Fowles recorded double figures in scoring for the 97th time of her career with 19 points tonight.

Fowles moved into sixth-place on the SEC career rebounds list with her seven rebounds tonight. She finished the game with a career total of 1,275 rebounds.

RaShonta LeBlanc scored in double figures for the ninth time of her career and the first time this season with 10 points tonight.

LeBlanc also recorded a career-high two blocked shots in tonight’s game.

Ashley Thomas scored in double figures for the first time this season and the 11th time of her career with 11 points tonight.

Thomas equaled her career-high with three blocked shots in tonight’s game.

Van Chancellor coached the 600th game of his college career tonight. The win was his 444th.