Nov. 13, 2004
BATON ROUGE, La. - No. 3/2 LSU turned in a 65-54 victory over Arizona State on Friday night in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center to win the 2004 Women's Sports Foundation Classic.
Virginia defeated Maine 72-62 earlier in the evening in the consolation game of the tournament.
ASU senior Kylan Loney led the Sun Devils with 12 points and was named to the all-tournament team, while sophomore Emily Westerberg had 11 points and a team-high eight rebounds. Junior Kristen Kovesdy was also named to the all-tournament team. Kovesdy had 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting in ASU's first-round win over Virginia and eight points and five boards in Friday's loss to LSU.
Tournament MVP Seimone Augustus led the way for LSU (2-0) with 25 points, including 16 in the first half, and added four rebounds, four steals and three assists to the winning effort. Temeka Johnson added 11 points and seven assists in the win, while all-tournament team selection Sylvia Fowles contributed six points, a team-high seven rebounds and four blocked shots.
Arizona State (1-1) scored the opening basket for the Sun Devils' only lead of the game. LSU used a 13-2 run to pull away and eventually led 35-23 at the break.
ASU cut the lead to nine points twice on their first two possessions of the second half, but LSU used a 10-2 run to take a 17-point lead. The Sun Devils had another chance midway through the second half when the team got within 10, 51-41 with 7:46 to play, after a layup by Kovesdy and a three-pointer by freshman Reagan Pariseau, but the Lady Tigers scored the next eight points of the game.
LSU led by as many as 19 points later in the second hald, but ASU made one last run at the Lady Tigers and closed the game on a 9-1 run en route to the 65-54 loss.
"I have a lot of respect for Arizona State and coach Charli Turner Thorne," LSU head coach Pokey Chatman said. "They do some very good things defensively and offensively and took us out of some things."
LSU shot 52.7 percent from the floor and held ASU to 37.5 percent, but the Sun Devils outrebounded the Lady Tigers 31-28 and connected on 16 of 21 free throws.
Arizona State returns to action on Saturday, Nov. 20, playing host to the University of San Diego in the Sun Devils' home opener at 6:30 p.m. at Wells Fargo Arena.
2004 WOMEN'S SPORTS FOUNDATION CLASSIC ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM Brandi Teamer, Virginia Monica Peterson, Maine Kristen Kovesdy, Arizona State Kylan Loney, Arizona State Sylvia Fowles, LSU MVP: Seimone Augustus, LSU