Women's Basketball Falls At No. 5 LSU In Preseason WNIT

Nov. 9, 2007

BATON ROUGE, La. - The Samford women's basketball team opened the 2007-08 regular season with an 86-38 loss at fifth-ranked LSU in the first round of the preseason WNIT Friday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

"We were beaten by the fifth-ranked team in the country, I think that is the best way to put it," Samford head coach Mike Morris said. "The thing we wanted to do was make them make three-pointers, and they made almost 50 percent of them. When you have a veteran team and a veteran coach like LSU does, they can make you look bad in a lot of ways, and they did that tonight."

With the loss, Samford drops to 0-1 on the season, and the Bulldogs move into the consolation bracket of the WNIT. The pairings and sites of the consolation bracket will be announced on Saturday. The consolation bracket games are scheduled for Nov. 16 and 17. LSU is now 1-0 and the Lady Tigers advance to the second round of the WNIT.

For Samford, Monica Maxwell scored eight points, and Taryn Towns and Chika Okoli added seven points each. Maxwell and freshman Emily London shared the team lead in rebounding with six each.

LSU was led by Quianna Chaney with 25 points. Allison Hightower scored 17 points, and Sylvia Fowles scored 10 points and led the Lady Tigers with six rebounds.

Samford ran out to an early 5-4 lead with 17:03 to play in the first half after a layup by Megan Wilderotter. LSU then went on a 17-0 run to take a 21-5 lead with 10:02 to play after a jumper by Hightower. The Lady Tigers pushed their lead to as much as 26 in the first half at 37-11, and they held a 44-19 lead at halftime.

In the second half, LSU led by as much as 50 at 82-32 and 84-34, and the Lady Tigers came away with the 86-38 win.

Samford will return to action on Tuesday, Nov. 13, when the Bulldogs play host to Alabama at 7:30 p.m. The game will be the first-ever regular-season basketball contest in the brand new Pete Hanna Center.