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Pulling away LSU breaks free for 83-66 victory
Updated: Friday March 16, 2001 9:54 PM
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) -- Louisiana State head coach Sue Gunter figured Arizona State would be spirited for its first NCAA tournament game since 1992. So the Lady Tigers employed a full-court press and wore them down. Ke-Ke Tardy scored 21 points and Marie Ferdinand added 19 points as Louisiana State beat Arizona State 83-66 Friday in the first round of the Mideast Regional. The Lady Tigers (20-10) pressed most of the game and forced 18 turnovers. Three Lady Tigers had at least two steals, led by DeTrina White with four. "I thought we played great on the defensive end of the floor," Gunter said. "If you press long enough, it wears on you mentally." Sixth-seeded LSU trailed early against the No. 11 Sun Devils before going on a 17-8 run that gave them a lead they would not relinquish. LSU will play the winner of Friday night's UC Santa Barbara-Purdue game. Arizona State (20-11) went on a 6-0 run to get the score to 50-42 with 15:28 left. The Lady Tigers pushed the lead back to double-digits and took a 13-point lead after a 3-pointer by Doneeka Hodges. They led by as many as 20 points. "I thought we executed very well and our shot selection was very good," Gunter said. Melody Johnson scored 25 points for Arizona State. She was 8-of-13 from the floor and 9-of-13 from the line. Tardy and Ferdinand each scored 10 points in the first half as the Lady Tigers shot 64 percent from the floor. They finished a combined 14-for-23. "If I were to judge my performance based on warmups, I would have had a poor-shooting game," Tardy said. "I had a couple of early layups and that got me going." Kisha James scored 13 points for LSU, and April Brown and De Trina White each had 10. Arizona State head coach Charli Turner Thorne, who gave birth to a boy only five days ago, said the LSU's experience edge was too much for her team.
"We played like a team that had not been here in this situation
before," she said. "We didn't even come close to playing our best
basketball. Normally, we're much more aggressive. We got away from
that at times."
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