With the announcement that Thursday night’s women’s basketball game between Missouri and Louisiana State would be postponed until Friday, the LSU players decided to have some fun, making snow angels and having a snowball fight.
“We don’t get a lot of it (snow) in Louisiana,” LSU coach Nikki Caldwell said.
Getting focused again may have taken longer than expected, with LSU blowing a nine-point halftime lead. The fun ended and LSU got serious in overtime, beating Missouri 78-74.
Perhaps most serious of all was LSU center Shanece McKinney. The 6-foot-4 junior had just six points and three rebounds at the end of regulation, but finished the game with 12 points and five rebounds.
“Going with Shanece McKinney, I though that gave us better rebounding, it gave us a presence on the defensive end, on the low block,” Caldwell said. “I thought she had some key defensive plays, but more importantly she made her free throws.”
As it has all season, Missouri (15-12, 4-9 Southeastern Conference) struggled with turnovers Friday afternoon, giving the ball up 21 times, including five times in overtime.
“We continue to be challenged with our turnovers,” Missouri coach Robin Pingeton said. “In this league, if you give up 29 points off of turnovers, it’s not good enough.”
Senior center Liz Smith and freshman guard Lianna Doty had five turnovers apiece. Doty has struggled with ball control all season, leading the team with 139 turnovers in 27 games.
Senior Sydney Crafton and sophomore Morgan Eye, two of the team’s top three scorers, totaled just 11 points. Eye, who shoots over 40 percent from 3-point territory, went just 1 for 4 from outside Friday.
Although she struggled with ball control, Smith, along with senior guard Liene Priede, picked up the slack in the scoring department. Smith dropped 15 and Priede finished with 18, tying her career high.
“I wish I could say I’m surprised, but I’m not,” Pingeton said. “This is what we all felt like we’d get out of LP all year long.”
The 6-foot-1 Smith was 7 of 15 from the field despite going up against LSU’s (16-10, 7-6 SEC) towering frontcourt made up of McKinney and 6-foot-5 junior forward Theresa Plaisance.
“In the last few days in practice, Coach P (Pingeton) has taken me and we’ve really focused on when I post up, attacking the post player and just getting big inside instead of backing into them where they can get position in front of me,” Smith said. “So just that, I think, really gave me a confidence boost. I know I can play one-on-one with these girls.”
Friday’s game was originally scheduled for 8 p.m. Thursday, but it was pushed back to 1 p.m. Friday due to a winter storm that closed down MU both Thursday and Friday.
Tickets to the contest were free, and those who had already purchased a ticket could use them either Friday or for Missouri’s Feb. 28 game against South Carolina. The reported attendance was just 686, easily the lowest of the season for Missouri.
