the switch

BY CHUCK CORDER The Natchez Democrat

BATON ROUGE, La. &045; Believe it or not, this one was close at one point.

LSU’s Lady Tigers actually trailed in this one, even midway through the second half before busting Texas open, closing the final 14 minutes on a 40-13 run.

No. 2 LSU left the No. 15 Longhorns (6-3) gushing in a 76-58 defeat where the Lady Tigers’ superstar freshman Seimone Augustus was basically a non-factor.

&uot;The biggest difference was the offensive execution,&uot; said senior forward Ke-Ke Tardy, who finished with nine points off the bench. &uot;Usually are defense sparks us, but the second half was about the motion we ran on offense.&uot;

The Lady Tigers (10-0) are off to the best start since the 1996-97 (14-0) season, which ended in a Sweet 16 appearance.

Texas held Augustus in check for the first 22 minutes of the game before she registered two free throws to cut the Texas lead to seven, 37-30, with 18:02 to play.

She then got her team’s momentum rolling on the next possession by leaving a Longhorn defender on a backdoor cut, scoring the basket and knocking down the free throw after she had been fouled.

Texas didn’t yield though building its lead, which had been reduced to a single bucket, back to nine, 45-36, before LSU went on its mammoth run.

&uot;It was a good game for a while there until they took over,&uot; Longhorns head coach Jody Conradt said. &uot;We lost the will to fight back. LSU has the depth, they’re physical and athletic &045; all the things that are tough to contend with.&uot;

What Conradt’s Longhorns hunkered down to were the LSU press and its inside presence of DeTrina White and Aiysha Smith.

Smith finished as the Lady Tigers top scorer with 19 on 9-of-13 shooting, while White complimented her nicely with a double-double &045; 16 points and 12 rebounds.

&uot;We started switching from post to post and ran our motion (offense), which confused them,&uot; said White, the senior from Lafayette. &uot;Everybody stepped up on defense.&uot;

After leading by nine with 14:04 to play, the Longhorns were outscored 15-1 in a little less than six minutes.

The Lady Tigers’ press forced Texas into either turnovers or bad shot selection three consecutive times.

White was the beneficiary of some crisp passing from Temeka Johnson and Augustus off Longhorn miscues.

Johnson threaded a needle through three Longhorn defenders with a no-look pass to a wide-open White to give LSU a 49-46 lead with 9:17 left.

&uot;Yesterday (Friday) I said they (LSU) were No. 1 because Duke isn’t on our schedule,&uot; Conradt said. &uot;They didn’t do anything to change that. Do I think that they’re as athletic as any team I’ve seen? Yes.&uot;

The next trip down Augustus elected to dish instead of shoot as she drew Texas’ full, undivided attention.

The pass was delicate as White put in the layup for her ninth and 10th points of the game.

&uot;The thing that got us going was the press,&uot; said LSU head coach Sue Gunter. &uot;We got them out of their rhythm and it made us feel good about ourselves and what we were doing.

&uot;We had more gas in the tank than Texas.&uot;

It looked like the Christmas weekend had drained the Lady Tigers of any fuel that had after walloping Southwest Texas 91-40 last Staurday.

Gunter practiced the Lady Tigers just three times this past week, giving her players the 23rd through Christmas Day off.

The only semblance of competition that the Lady Tigers could point to during this young season was its opener on the road at Arizona.

LSU, on the strength of Augustus’ 27, eeked out a 78-71 overtime victory.

However, the Lady Wildcats weren’t ranked.

Texas was playing its second consecutive top-five team and looking for win No. 2 after upsetting then-No.4 Tennessee in Austin a week ago Saturday 63-62. And through the first 25 minutes it looked as though it was the Longhorns for the taking.

&uot;We fell a part. People were trying to score instead of thinking about where to take the right shot,&uot; said forward Heather Schreiber, who finished with a season-high 20 points.

Texas’ field-goal shooting was its second worst of the yeat at 36.4 percent.

Early on the Longhorns’ aim wasn’t much better, but from the 8:50 mark on it controlled the first half.

After eight lead changes highlighted the opening 11 minutes,Texas built a lead up to as many as four, 22-18, with 8:25 remaining.

The Lady Tigers tied it at 22 before Texas put some distance between itself and LSU with a 6-0 run for a 28-22 lead with 3:57 left.

&uot;I felt like we were trying to play more like Texas and we weren’t executing in the half-court or rebounding and we were turning it over too may times,&uot; Gunter said. &uot;We hung in there, though. The value of this team is its deep and talented bench.&uot;

A Schreiber 3-pointer she had no buisness taking but made with 48 seconds left

kept the Longhorns’ ahead by six, 31-25.

But Doneeka Hodges gave the Lady Tigers and the 2,452 in attendance a needed boost as her 27-footer caught nothing but nylon just as the horn sounded for a 31-28 halftime deficit.

&uot;For me this game was personal,&uot; Tardy said. &uot;Last year we got beat by two on their court an down the stretch I made some crucial mistakes.

&uot;I wanted to make amends.&uot;