Feb 1, 2004
By MARY FOSTER
AP Sports Writer
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) – Scholanda Hoston and Seimone Augustus each scored 17 points and No. 15 LSU beat South Carolina 82-62 on Sunday.
Wendlyn Jones had 14 points and Hanna Biernacka added 10 for the Tigers (17-3, 5-1 Southeastern Conference), who were coming off a loss at Georgia a week ago that snapped their 15-game winning streak.
Olga Gritsaeva had 16 points for South Carolina (9-10, 0-6), while Sarah Burgess added 12 and Kelly Morrone 10.
The Gamecocks led four times and there were four ties before the Tigers took a 36-35 halftime lead.
South Carolina, which made 5-of-8 three-point attempts in the first half, went cold from the perimeter in the second half and finished with 5-of-12 from beyond the arc.
Still the Gamecocks whittled LSU’s lead to 50-47 midway through the second half. LSU quickly moved back ahead on consecutive baskets by Augustus and Temeka Johnson.
The Tigers shot 69.2 percent from the field in the second half and 57.9 for the game. LSU outrebounded South Carolina 33-26.
LSU coach Sue Gunter was not at the game as she continues to recover from bronchitis and a viral infection that kept her away from four games in early January.
“LSU is a really good team, and we knew it would be a struggle to come here,” said USC head coach Susan Walvius. “You look at the balance on the floor, and I though Seimone Augustus was a big time player. She stepped up in a critical game situation today. It was really tough for us to defend her, and we are working on our defensive communication. I thought we had some lapses there today. I was really impressed with some of our young players and their performance today, when you step out on the court and play against a team like LSU. I though Olga (Gritsaeva) played well.
“They did a good job forcing us to put the ball on the court. It appeared as if they had made an adjustment at halftime, which allowed us to attack the basket with penetration. We were pulling our hair out on the bench with our kids. The opportunities were there to drive, and we were not making the most of that. We were being a little to patient in the stretch, because when we did take it to the rim typically we got into the spacing that we wanted. Typically we got a lay-up or we got fouled, we were not as aggressive offensively in those situations. Our problems today were not, even though I would have liked those ten or sixteen points we could have gotten from that and we didn’t take advantage of, our problems were really more defensive today.”
The Gamecocks return to the court Thursday night for a 7:00 game against the Ole Miss Rebels in the Colonial Center.
