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Georgia Holds Off LSU, 49-46, In Overtime

Feb 4, 2010 by Georgia Sports Communications

ATHENS, Ga. -— Freshman Jasmine James scored the go-ahead lay-up with 1:23 on the clock and added a free throw with 39 seconds left as the 14th-ranked Georgia Lady Bulldogs held on for a 49-46 overtime win over No. 19 LSU Thursday night at Stegeman Coliseum.

The score was knotted at 42 at the end of regulation, but the Lady Dogs allowed just four points in the extra period to come away with the win and improve to 19-4 (6-4 SEC), snapping their three-game losing skid. The Lady Tigers fall to 15-6 (4-5) with the loss.

It was only the second overtime contest of the season for Georgia, which is now 2-0 in OT after defeating Kentucky in similar fashion back on Jan. 7. Tonight marked only the third time the Lady Dogs have scored less than 50 points in a game this season, while they have now held opponents under 50 on eight occasions in 2009-10.

“If you like defense, this was a good one. If you like offense, this game was about as ugly as it comes,” said head coach Andy Landers. “We didn’t get off to a good start. They scored their first four points off offensive rebounds and they had nine offensive rebounds in the first half and nine more in the second half. But we made stops, we cleaned up with rebounds and kept them from scoring the basketball. We missed some key free throws, but we scored enough to win this.”

Georgia received 15 points from James and got eight apiece from Porsha Phillips and Angel Robinson. Robinson also contributed a game-best 14 rebounds and four blocks. The rebound total tied her season high.

Allison Hightower was LSU’s leading scorer with 22 points, while she added eight boards and was the only Lady Tiger in double digits.

LSU led for all but the final seven seconds of the first half – including their largest margin of eight at the 9:31 mark in the opener. After a lay-up from the Lady Tigers’ Destini Hughes put LSU up by seven, at 20-13, with 5:52 left, Georgia kicked off a 6-0 run to cut it to just one with 2:44 to go.

A jumper from Robinson with seven ticks remaining gave the Lady Bulldogs their first lead of the game at 23-22 and after LSU failed to score for the final 3:21 of the first half, Georgia hit the locker room holding onto that slim lead.

The second half started slowly for both teams, as there was only one bucket – a Meredith Mitchell jumper – in a span of nearly five minutes, until a lay-up from point guard Ashley Houts snapped that dry spell with 12:19 left in the game to give UGA a four-point edge at 31-27.

Georgia was again up by four, 38-34, with 7:33 to go in regulation after Phillips followed her own missed jumper, but LSU would tie it at 38 before taking a 40-38 lead with 6:03 left in the second on a lay-up from Taylor Turnbow. A pair of free throws for Phillips tied it up again, but LSU went right back in front at 42-40 with 5:02 on the clock. After Houts knocked down a jumper to tie it at 42 apiece with 4:03 left, neither team would find the net for the remainder of the half as it was headed for the extra five.

The Tigers scored first in OT on a Hightower fade-away from the baseline, but Phillips countered on a putback to make it 44-44 with 1:10 gone by. Another scoring drought kept it tied until the clock read 2:03, when Phillips sank two free throws to give the lead back to Georgia. But Katherine Graham was fouled and made both her looks to tie it once again at 46 with 1:39 left.

From there, James weaved her way through the lane right to the basket for a late lay-up to put the Lady Dogs on top, 48-46, with 1:23 to play and after Georgia stole the ball back and was fouled, James hit the front end of her one-and-one to make it a three-point cushion with 39 ticks remaining.

LSU couldn’t score on its next possession and Hightower fouled Phillips with nine seconds left in the overtime period. Phillips missed her first chance and the Lady Tigers secured the rebound, but couldn’t get their last three-point attempt to go as the Lady Dogs came away with the victory.

Georgia is now 20-16 all-time against the league rival, which includes an 11-5 clip in meetings in Athens.

In the contest, Houts saw her playing time shoot back up to 34 minutes as she continues to work her way back from a sprained ankle suffered in the Tennessee game on Jan. 21 and tweaked vs. Mississippi State Jan. 28. The senior played just eight minutes in the Lady Dogs’ last outing at Auburn but contributed tonight with seven points, two asssits and two steals.

The Lady Dogs are next in action on Sun., Feb. 7 when they host South Carolina for a 2 p.m. tip to be televised on CSS.

Notes
• The Lady Bulldogs are 20-16 all-time against LSU, including a 11-5 mark in Stegeman Coliseum.
• The last time Georgia had an overtime win at home was a 61-60 victory on Jan. 7 against Kentucky.
• Tonight’s victory represented just the second time in Andy Landers’ 987 games coached at Georgia that the Lady Bulldogs won when scoring less than 50 points. The other occasion was a 49-48 decision over Rutgers earlier this season on Nov. 22.
• This evening’s game against the Lady Tigers represents the fourth time during the 2009-10 season that a Lady Bulldog met a former high school teammate–Meredith Mitchell faced LSU’s Courtney Jones. Previously this season Mitchell faced another Midfield High School alum, LaKenya Lowe of UAB.
• This was a record setting game for Angel Robinson–she surpassed No. 25 Cynthia Collins in points with 1125. Angel is now 32 points away from No. 24 Alexis Kendrick’s 1157.
• Angel’s 14 rebounds enabled her to pass No. 6 Christi Thomas in boards with 909 and she is now five away from No. 5 Tammye Jenkins.

Double Digits
• One player had a double digit game for the Lady Bulldogs–Jasmine James (15).
• This is Jasmine James’ 11th double-digit game of the season and 11th in her career.

Keep Your Eye On …
• Ashley Houts is …. 31 points from No. 18 Camille Lowe; 22 FTs from No. 3 Kelly Miller; 5 FTA’s from No. 6 Kelly Miller; 11 3GFs from co-No. 9’s Coco Miller and Pam Irwin-Osbolt; 7 3FGAs from No. 9 Janese Hardrick; 24 assists from No. 4 Alexis Kendrick; 1 steals from No. 4 Kedra Holland-Corn, 2 starts from No. 8 Coco Miller.
• Angel Robinson is …. 32 points from No. 24 Alexis Kendrick; 5 boards from No. 5 Tammye Jenkins; 67 blocks from No. 3 Tracy Henderson.

Georgia Head Coach Andy Landers
“If you like defense, this was a good one. If you like offense, this game was about as ugly as it comes. We didn’t get off to a good start. They scored their first four points off offensive rebounds and they had nine offensive rebounds in the first half and nine more in the second half. But we made stops, we cleaned up with rebounds and kept them from scoring the basketball. We missed some key free throws, but we scored enough to win this.”

“JJ was terrific at the beginning of the first half. We struggled in the post but we finally settled in and got the ball to the post and were 4-of-5.”

“They hurt us on the offensive boards and (our) man-to-man. When we went zone that helped, and we got it all straightened out. I couldn’t be prouder of the way we played defense the last 25 minutes.”

LSU Head Coach Van Chancellor
“We played as hard as we could. Our defense tonight was the old LSU defense. Georgia struggled to score. We forced 26 turnovers, but we couldn’t make a shot. We had 18 more shots than they did, but only hit 27 percent from the field. I’m amazed we guarded as well as we did. Towards the end, we failed to box out Porsha Phillips. We just didn’t do the job we needed to do.”

“I thought Destini Hughes and Taylor Turnbow were outstanding for us tonight defensively. Turnbow was really good against Angel Robinson. Robinson is really hard for us to guard because she is a real matchup problem. She had 14 rebounds against us, but Turnbow did a nice job against her. This is just a good Georgia team. In regulation we got the ball back with 30 seconds and had a good look, but the ball just didn’t go in.”