Tide Women's Basketball Defeats LSU in Home Finale
6/13/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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TUSCALOOSA-- Katie Sipe and Beth Vice decided to give the departing Alabama women’s basketball senior class a going away present as the UA duo combined for 12 three-pointers in guiding the Tide to an impressive 82-73 victory over LSU on Sunday afternoon in Coleman Coliseum.
Sipe, a freshman for Alabama, finished with a career-high 21 points with seven three-pointers while Vice, a redshirt junior who would have been a senior this year but for a knee injury, added 19 points including five treys. The Bama pair was the only two UA players to make three-pointers in the game.
“We didn’t have an answer for Sipe and Vice,” said LSU head coach Sue Gunter. “They were not a surprise to us. We knew that they would good perimeter shooters we just weren’t able to stop them.”
With the win, Alabama improved to 17-10 overall and 7-7 in the Southeastern Conference. LSU fell to 15-10 overall and 8-6 in the SEC. The Crimson Tide is now 22-6 all-time in “Senior Day” games and remained undefeated (8-0) versus LSU under coach Rick Moody in games played in Tuscaloosa.
Alabama got out of the blocks quickly taking a 7-2 lead as senior LaNisha Cartwell scored a pair of buckets and Vice hit her first three-pointer of the game. LSU answered with 10 straight points to earn their first lead but then Alabama battled back pushing back in front by eight points (31-23) with 6:14 left in the first period.
The Lady Tigers chipped away at the Bama margin and actually held a three-point lead on Doneeka Hodges three-pointer with 2:23 left in the half. Vice connected on back-to-back treys in the final minute before Temeka Johnson heaved in a half-court buzzer beater to send LSU into halftime down by just a single point, 41-40.
Sipe and Vice continued their hot shooting to open the second half hitting back-to-back treys in the opening minute to extend the Tide’s lead back to seven points. The Crimson Tide maintained that lead for much of the second half fighting off LSU’s lone surge.
With 7:15 left in the game, the Lady Tigers trimmed Alabama’s margin to just three points, 61-58, on a pair of free throws from Hodges, but again Vice and Sipe stepped in up sandwiching a Shondra Johnson layup with three-pointers and the Tide was back in front by double-digits.
LSU could get no closer than five points the rest of the way as Alabama held on for their important seventh SEC victory.
“It was an outstanding win for our team,” said UA head coach Rick Moody. “It was a great game that we had to win. If we wanted any chance in the postseason we had to win today and that’s what we did. The balance in scoring for us was a big key to the victory.”
Four Alabama players reached double figures today led by Sipe’s 21 and Vice’s 19. Cartwell finished with 14 points including her 1,000 points at the 12:23 mark in the first half and Shondra Johnson posted 10 points in her final home game. Cartwell, Johnson and Monique Bivins all pulled down eight rebounds to lead UA to a 47-36 margin on the glass. Johnson also handed out a team-best five assists to move into third on Alabama’s all-time assist list.
Temeka Johnson led a quartet of LSU scorers in double-digits with 19 points followed by 18 from Aiysha Smith.
The Crimson Tide now head to next week’s SEC Championship tournament at the 8th seed. Alabama meets No. 9 seeded Georgia at noon on Thursday in the opening game of the event being held at the Gaylord Center in Nashville, Tenn.
