Florida continues to have Lady Tigers’ number
e_SDLqIt’s a great win for our program. We’ve not won here for a long time.” Amanda Butler, Florida coach
It was Florida that started LSU’s once promising season on a downward spiral with a 62-58 win Jan. 15 over the Lady Tigers in Gainesville.
Thursday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center the Gators kept the hammer down on LSU with a 73-64 victory over a team that was tied for first in the Southeastern Conference before these two hooked up nearly three weeks ago.
Both teams are now 14-8 overall and 4-5 in conference play, but on this night their directions could hardly have looked more polar opposite.
The Lady Tigers have now lost five straight Southeastern Conference games for the first time since 1995-96. That season was also the last time Florida beat LSU in the PMAC.
One more discouraging factoid: this marks the first time Florida has swept a pair of games from LSU since 1994-95.
“There were three things I put on the board for this team going into this game to be successful,” first-year LSU coach Nikki Caldwell said.
“One, be confident and believe in each other. Two, be mentally tougher than the other team. Three, Max out (your ability). Those are three things we didn’t do tonight.”
The Lady Tigers never led, trailed by as many as 14 points and never got any closer than six points in the second half.
En route to the victory, Florida became the first team to shoot 50 percent against LSU this season (27-of-54), seeming to always have someone come up with a basket or a stop or a steal just when the Gators needed to squelch the Lady Tigers’ hopes.
“What’s remarkable is that it was a different person every time,” Florida coach Amanda Butler said. “It was a fantastic team effort.
“There’s not a win I’ve been more proud of this season than this one over a very, very good LSU team. It’s a great win for our program. We’ve not won here for a long time.”
Whether LSU is a good team or has been a good team since the loss of starting point guard Destini Hughes to a season-ending knee injury Jan. 19 at Tennessee is debatable.
Since its loss at Florida the game before the Tennessee defeat, LSU’s only victory has been a 71-68 overtime win on the road over an East Tennessee State team that is now 6-16.
That’s not LSU’s record. It only feels that way.
“I feel we have so much game left, seven games, we just have to bring it back to where we started in the beginning,” said forward Courtney Jones, one of three double-figure scorers for LSU with 10 points. “We have to come in to practice (Friday) ready to work. We have to be much more strong-minded.”
That certainly seems like a must with No. 6-ranked Kentucky (21-2, 10-0) coming in for a 2 p.m. pre-Super Bowl appetizer Sunday, fresh off an 82-41 demolition of Ole Miss on Thursday.
Considering that Kentucky loves to press and came into Thursday’s game leading the SEC with 13.1 steals per game and boasting a plus-11.4 turnover ratio, that doesn’t bode well for LSU. Against Florida, the Lady Tigers had as many turnovers (22) as made field goals.
“From here on out it’s going to be a tough battle for our team because everyone is gunning for us,” Caldwell said. “They know our vulnerability.”
And that vulnerability starts and ends at point guard.
Sophomore Jeanne Kenney, feeling 100 percent for the first time since suffering a concussion in the opening minutes of the Tennessee game, started at point. But she was hampered by foul trouble and eventually fouled out with 10 points in 29 minutes of play.
Forward LaSondra Barrett picked up from Kenney, but her having on point took LSU’s leading scorer and rebounder out of the low post where she’s also needed. Barrett finished with just five points and eight rebounds.
Adrienne Webb led LSU with 19 points. Azania Stewart had a double-double for Florida, her first this season, with 12 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
Houma native and former Ellender standout Deana Allen, a senior playing her last college game in Louisiana, scored nine points and had four rebounds.