Dispatch
NO. 9 LSU 75 NO. 5 OHIO STATE 51
Dominant Tigers stagger Buckeyes
OSU not up to snuff in tough loss on the road
Monday, December 11, 2006
Jim Massie
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
BATON ROUGE, La. ? No contests come in a couple of varieties.
What the Louisiana State Tigers did to the fifth-ranked Ohio State women?s basketball team yesterday in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center wasn?t a one-punch knockout where a bob instead of a weave might have changed the outcome.
Instead, the No. 9 Tigers laid a 40-minute beating on the Buckeyes that really wasn?t as close as the 75-51 final score. The decisiveness matched the cruel intentions.
"We knew our speed would be something that would be difficult for them to handle," LSU guard Erica White said. "We definitely wanted to get out and run. It was there early. It was there late, and we did it. We got it done."
In the first half, the Tigers (10-1) built a 20-0 edge over the Buckeyes (7-1) on points scored on turnovers. They finished with a 16-0 edge in fast-break points. Their swarming defense, meanwhile, limited OSU to a season-low 32.3 percent field goal percentage.
Senior guard Brandie Hoskins didn?t have enough fingers to count what went wrong, so she picked "everything."
"We came out playing on our heels," Hoskins said. "They were getting fast breaks on us. We didn?t reverse the ball. We didn?t knock down a lot of shots that usually fall for us. We just didn?t play well."
The marquee matchup between All-American centers Jessica Davenport of OSU and Sylvia Fowles went to Fowles for a second consecutive season. She outscored Davenport 18-14 and had a 16-13 edge in rebounds. Mostly, though, Fowles helped the Tigers shut down the Buckeyes? inside game.
"I must say I came out in beast mode tonight," Fowles said. "I had my mind right, and I had my game plan ready to go. I wasn?t showing no pity."
Her plan against Davenport employed physical and mental elements.
"Basically, I?m just trying to get in her head and distract her," Fowles said. "Not even by trash talking, just by making her work for everything that she gets."
The Buckeyes made a game of it for the first 16 minutes. They used a 10-0 run in the first half to turn a 22-12 deficit into a tie. Davenport went to the bench with her second foul with 4:27 to play and the Tigers pushed the lead to 34-24.
LSU opened the second half with an 11-2 burst, and pity had no place in what followed. The Tigers led 66-41 with 5:16 to play when White came out of nowhere to get her fourth steal and set up a basket by Fowles.
"We definitely wanted to continue to go at them," White said. "Being up by (25) doesn?t change the way that we?re going to play."
OSU coach Jim Foster hopes the defeat turns a light on for the team like a 66-48 loss to LSU last season did.
"Last year when we walked out, I felt that we had a huge margin for improvement and that we would improve," he said. "This year, we have to figure that out. It?s much more about the mental aspect right now than tweaking the offense or tweaking the defense. We have to have a different mentality about us and just take a little more responsibility for that."
Senior Stephanie Blanton returned for OSU after missing three games because of a knee injury. Sophomore Ashlee Trebilcock, a sophomore transfer from UCLA, also was eligible to play for the first time. She scored six points.
Monday, December 11, 2006
NO. 9 LSU 75 NO. 5 OHIO STATE 51
Dominant Tigers stagger Buckeyes
OSU not up to snuff in tough loss on the road
Monday, December 11, 2006
Jim Massie
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
BATON ROUGE, La. ? No contests come in a couple of varieties.
What the Louisiana State Tigers did to the fifth-ranked Ohio State women?s basketball team yesterday in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center wasn?t a one-punch knockout where a bob instead of a weave might have changed the outcome.
Instead, the No. 9 Tigers laid a 40-minute beating on the Buckeyes that really wasn?t as close as the 75-51 final score. The decisiveness matched the cruel intentions.
"We knew our speed would be something that would be difficult for them to handle," LSU guard Erica White said. "We definitely wanted to get out and run. It was there early. It was there late, and we did it. We got it done."
In the first half, the Tigers (10-1) built a 20-0 edge over the Buckeyes (7-1) on points scored on turnovers. They finished with a 16-0 edge in fast-break points. Their swarming defense, meanwhile, limited OSU to a season-low 32.3 percent field goal percentage.
Senior guard Brandie Hoskins didn?t have enough fingers to count what went wrong, so she picked "everything."
"We came out playing on our heels," Hoskins said. "They were getting fast breaks on us. We didn?t reverse the ball. We didn?t knock down a lot of shots that usually fall for us. We just didn?t play well."
The marquee matchup between All-American centers Jessica Davenport of OSU and Sylvia Fowles went to Fowles for a second consecutive season. She outscored Davenport 18-14 and had a 16-13 edge in rebounds. Mostly, though, Fowles helped the Tigers shut down the Buckeyes? inside game.
"I must say I came out in beast mode tonight," Fowles said. "I had my mind right, and I had my game plan ready to go. I wasn?t showing no pity."
Her plan against Davenport employed physical and mental elements.
"Basically, I?m just trying to get in her head and distract her," Fowles said. "Not even by trash talking, just by making her work for everything that she gets."
The Buckeyes made a game of it for the first 16 minutes. They used a 10-0 run in the first half to turn a 22-12 deficit into a tie. Davenport went to the bench with her second foul with 4:27 to play and the Tigers pushed the lead to 34-24.
LSU opened the second half with an 11-2 burst, and pity had no place in what followed. The Tigers led 66-41 with 5:16 to play when White came out of nowhere to get her fourth steal and set up a basket by Fowles.
"We definitely wanted to continue to go at them," White said. "Being up by (25) doesn?t change the way that we?re going to play."
OSU coach Jim Foster hopes the defeat turns a light on for the team like a 66-48 loss to LSU last season did.
"Last year when we walked out, I felt that we had a huge margin for improvement and that we would improve," he said. "This year, we have to figure that out. It?s much more about the mental aspect right now than tweaking the offense or tweaking the defense. We have to have a different mentality about us and just take a little more responsibility for that."
Senior Stephanie Blanton returned for OSU after missing three games because of a knee injury. Sophomore Ashlee Trebilcock, a sophomore transfer from UCLA, also was eligible to play for the first time. She scored six points.
Monday, December 11, 2006
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