Women’s basketball falls to LSU in tightly contested overtime match

The Tulane women exhibited the grit and resolve of a Conference USA contender against LSU, holding the No. 7 Tigers to just five points in the last 15 minutes of the second half. The visitors, however, pulled away in overtime as LaSondra Barrett led LSU to a 73 - 65 victory over the Green Wave.

The Tigers (6-0) set the tone early with Barrett scoring five of the team’s first six points as they took a quick 65 - 61 lead in overtime. They never looked back.

“I’m really proud of our team,” Tulane Coach Lisa Stockton said. “I thought they competed. I thought everybody really contributed. I saw a team that was very unselfish. Whoever could score or whoever could defend, they were fine with it. If we could build on this, we can be very good. That is what we’ve got to do.”

Tulane found itself down 54 - 41 early in the second half, but did not allow the Tigers to cruise to their 30th consecutive victory over Louisiana-based competition. The Green Wave held their opponents to only two field goals for the rest of the game and tied the contest with 59.2 seconds remaining on two free throws, courtesy of freshman point guard Olivia Grayson.

Tulane played tough defense throughout the game against a high-scoring LSU team, holding them to 33.9 percent from the floor (19 of 56) and just 21.7 percent in the second half. The Tigers came into the contest averaging 77.8 points per game on 45.6 percent shooting from the field.

“I thought we did a great job defensively,” Stockton said. “We played our personnel. We were on help side and we pulled down some really big rebounds in the second half when we needed them. LSU has so many weapons and it’s really hard to hold them to a low percentage.”

LSU, however, dominated at the free throw line, hitting 31 of 40 foul shots, while Tulane converted only 8 of 16 attempts.

“We missed some early in the game and did a much better job in the second half,” Stockton said. “We just didn’t get many chances. We need to make them, absolutely, but I really feel that we made so many breaks for ourselves. It was a well-played game.”

Sophomore center Brett Benzio performed admirably in the post, scoring six points and collecting eight rebounds. Offensively, the team was led by Grayson and Tiffany Aidoo who came off of the bench to contribute 16 points and 12 points, respectively.

“It was a great performance. They [Grayson and Aidoo] came in and gave us so much energy,” Stockton said. “They were aggressive and attacked the basket. We really had a great group today where we could sub freely and get something from everyone.”

The Wave recovered to post a come-from-behind victory Tuesday against the University of Southern Alabama at the Mitchell Center. Chassity Brown led Tulane with 19 points, including a layup with 4.7 seconds remaining to give her team the 73 - 71 victory.

The Green Wave returns to action 7 p.m. tonight in the Big Easy Classic against Prairie View A&M at Fogelman Arena.