FAYETTEVILLE — All of a sudden, Arkansas has LSU’s number in women’s basketball.
The Razorbacks completed a season sweep of the Lady Tigers on Sunday, hanging on for a 42-40 victory in front of 1,541 fans at Bud Walton Arena. Arkansas (18-8, 6-8) has now beaten the Lady Tigers (17-11, 7-7) two times in a row, after opening the season on a16-game skid against them.
Arkansas has also won two consecutive games, after snapping a four-game losing streak earlier in the week by defeating Ole Miss.
“We know we’re a good team; it’s just a matter of coming out and getting it done,” Arkansas center Sarah Watkins said. “With the Ole Miss game, we had some momentum coming into this one. This is a really good win for us.”
Watkins, who led all players with 19 points, was one of the few Razorbacks who had much success on offense. Herjumper with 2:18 remaining in the game broke a 39-39 tie.
Arkansas won despite going 16 for 63 from the field (25.4 percent) and 1 for 11 (9.1 percent) from beyond the three-point line.
LSU didn’t fare much better, though. The Lady Tigers shot 13 of 49 from the field (26.5 percent), and their 40 points was their lowest total of the season - five fewer than the 45 the Lady Tigers scored when the Lady Razorbacks beat them on Jan. 27.
LSU had a chance to win it at the end, but Jeanne Kenneymissed a three-pointer.
“We had a play drawn up at the end and it didn’t work out,” LSU Coach Van Chancellor said. “When you a hold a team in the Southeastern Conference to 42 points and can’t win, you have problems.”
Neither team was ever able to establish much of a cushion, as Arkansas took a 20-18 halftime lead. The Razorbacks went up by six early in the second half, but LSU answered with a 14-3 run to take its biggest lead, 32-27, with 8:36 remaining.
Arkansas scored f ive points to tie it, LSU went back up 37-33, and from there it was all Razorbacks. Ashley Daniels went 0 for 7 from the field, but made up for it by grabbing a game-high 13 rebounds. C’eira Ricketts also struggled with her shooting, going 4 of 21, and finished with 9 points and 5rebounds.
“I think it’s a huge win,” said Arkansas Coach Tom Collen, whose team also had its lowest point total of the season. “I know it wasn’t a very pretty basketball game, but LSU has a tendency to do that. They make you play this way.”
Lyndsay Harris scored three points to become the 24th Arkansas player in program history to reach 1,000 in her career. She said after the game that the Razorbacks were motivated by comments Chancellor made after Arkansas won 53-45 at LSU earlier this season. Chancellor was so disgusted by the Lady Tigers’ performance he apologized to every player who had ever put on an LSU uniform and every person who had ever bought a ticket or come to an LSU women’s game.
“When a team is not anymore ready to play than we were tonight, it’s nobody’s fault but my own,” Chancellor said. ... “We couldn’t execute. We didn’t execute.”
Chancellor made those comments Jan. 27, and the Razorbacks have been stewing about it ever since.
“It kind of made us feel like the coach of LSU was disrespecting us,” Harris said. “We kept that quote pinned in our locker room, not just for this game but for every game we played since then. I think it gave us a bit of attitude to take it to them this game.”
Adrienne Webb led LSU with 10 points. LaSondra Barrett had 9 points and 9 rebounds.
Chancellor was slightly more generous with praise for Arkansas this time.
“Give Arkansas credit for finding a way to win,” he said. “Watkins made some clutch shots late. I can’t get us to quit charging and I don’t have an answer. You can’t defend them any better than that. We can’t make shots.”SEC/TOP 25 WOMEN
NO. 19 KENTUCKY 80, VANDERBILT 71
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Keyla Snowden had 22 points, including four threepointers to help No. 19 Kentucky (20-7, 9-5 SEC) win at Vanderbilt (18-9, 9-5) for the first time in 25 years.
Bernisha Pinkett scored 14 points and A’dia Mathies and Jennifer O’Neill each had 13 points for the Wildcats, who moved into third place in the SEC.
Victoria Dunlap, held scoreless the first half, finished with 10.
Sports, Pages 17 on 02/21/2011