BATON ROUGE, La. — UTSA scored the first 11 points of Thursday's matinee at LSU, but the lead was short-lived, as the Lady Tigers answered with a strong second-half performance en route to a 74-41 victory at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
LaSondra Barrett led LSU (7-4) with a game-high 19 points, while the Roadrunners (3-6) were paced by junior Ashley Gardner's 15.
UTSA controlled the contest's opening minutes by hitting five of its first seven shots to take the 11-0 lead.
Sophomore Jermini Malone, a Saline, La., native, put the Birds on the board with a deep 3-pointer to beat the shot clock and the Roadrunners followed with six consecutive points in the paint following buckets by Gardner, sophomore Cori Cooper and Malone.
Meanwhile, UTSA’s zone defense frustrated the Lady Tigers, who missed their first 13 shots before Adrienne Webb connected from downtown at the 13:56 mark. That basket helped spark a 14-0 run that gave LSU their first lead of the game.
Gardner put the brakes on an eight-minute scoring drought with a jumper in the lane to pull the Roadrunners within one. She went on to hit a 3-pointer with less than a minute on the clock to end an 8-0 stretch, but the Lady Tigers took 22-18 halftime advantage into the locker room.
UTSA cooled off after its blistering start to shoot 30 percent from the field and it was hurt by 16 turnovers. Despite shooting just 18 percent in the half, LSU scored seven points off turnovers and seven second-chance points for the four-point lead.
Barrett scored the first nine points of the second half to fuel an 11-0 run and the Lady Tigers surged ahead from there.
A pair of free throws by Cooper ended the stretch, but another Barrett 3-pointer pushed the lead to 25 (45-20) and LSU never let the edge dip below 20 the rest of the way.
The Roadrunners, who have dropped four games in a row, will look to get back on the winning track next week when they host their annual Holiday Classic at the Convocation Center. UTSA will open tournament play at 6 p.m. on Monday against Kansas State (8-1).
