The University of Mississippi Athletics
Rebels Tame #5/6 Tigers 77-74
1/12/2007 | Women's Basketball
OXFORD, Miss. (AP) - Armintie Price scored 18 points, including two clutch run-killing baskets late, and Ole Miss won its second straight game against a ranked team with a 77-74 victory over No. 5 LSU on Thursday night.
The Rebels (14-4) snapped LSU's 10-game winning streak and are off to a 3-0 start in the Southeastern Conference after beating then-No. 11 Vanderbilt on Sunday and the Tigers (15-2, 1-1).
Ole Miss built an 18-point lead - the biggest deficit surrended by LSU this season - in a frenetic first half and held on as Sylvia Fowles and Quianna Chaney led a 20-5 run for the Tigers to start the second half.
The Rebels snapped an 11-game losing streak in the series against LSU and have now won five straight. It's their best start in conference since the 1991-92 season when they finished 11-0.
The Rebels forced 20 Tigers turnovers and got 19 points from Alliesha Easley and 18 from Ashley Awkward.
It was just the ninth loss in three seasons for LSU coach Pokey Chatman. Fowles led LSU with 25 points and 19 rebounds, while Chaney added 14 points.
Ole Miss finished the first half on a 13-3 run for a 38-21 halftime lead. The Rebels held the Tigers without a field goal in the final 4:06 of the half.
However, LSU came out of the break and quickly erased the deficit. Fowles and Chaney mercilessly squeezed Ole Miss, scoring the first 18 points in the run, mostly on short-range jumpers and layups. Fowles, a 6-foot-6 center, scored 10 during the run and guard Chaney drove the lane for the other eight.
The Tigers pulled to 43-41 on Erica White's layup - on an assist from Chaney - with 11:30 left.
But the Rebels didn't give up in the face of the nation's toughest defense, which came into the game allowing 43.1 points per contest. They followed the Tigers' run with a 9-2 burst of their own, punctuated by a 3-point play from Price, to push their lead back to 54-45 with 9:13 to go.
LSU outscored Ole Miss 53-39 in the second half, but never wrested the lead from the Rebels.
