Lady Tigers Open Northeast Road Trip With Loss To Rutgers

The LSU women’s basketball team started its Northeastern road trip with a 69-57 loss to the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in Piscataway, NJ.

Rutgers entered this game as, arguably, the second best non-conference opponent of the season. All three of the Scarlet Knights’ losses came at the hands of ranked teams and Rutgers average margin of victory has been double-figures. With that said, LSU hung with Rutgers in the first half and led by five late in the second quarter, although ultimately trailing by three, 37-34, at the half. A big reason for the Tigers first half success was the offense, which shot 51.9 percent in the first half. Rina Hill and Anne Pederson led the Tigers in scoring with seven points in the first twenty minutes. Alexis Hyder and Ann Jones each had six in the first half.

In the second half, the Tiger offense went cold, shooting just 30.8% from the field. The Rutgers offense, would shoot 52% from the field and led by as much 18 in the second half before ultimately securing the ten point victory. After their strong first half, Hill and Pederson were unable to build on their first half, combining for just seven points in the second half.

LSU lost the battle of turnovers, 16-15, leading to 22 Rutgers points. The Tigers did do a good job at the free throw line shooting 11-16, 68% for the game. Ultimately, a good portion of this loss falls on the offense, which now ranks dead last in the SEC in total points. The Tigers also have just two wins out of seven games outside of Baton Rouge.

The loss pushes the Tigers record to 6-5, and will likely start conference play end end the road trip at 6-6 with UConn coming up on Monday, in what will be the most difficult opponent LSU will face this season.

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