SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - For the second time in four days, top-ranked LSU passed a difficult road test.
Seimone Augustus scored 19 and the Tigers fought off a second-half charge by Southwest Missouri State with a late 16-0 run in a 66-54 victory in the Triple Crown Classic on Saturday.
"It was the perfect game for us," LSU coach Pokey Chatman said. "What an environment to play in. You can't mimic this."
LSU followed up a 75-67 victory at No. 13 Minnesota on Tuesday by shooting 54 percent and holding Southwest Missouri to 36.5 percent. The biggest obstacle was a raucous near-sellout crowd of 8,431 in the bandbox Hammons Center.
"I couldn't hear myself," Chatman said. "It made you focus to be a really good communicating team."
LSU ended Southwest Missouri's 24-game home-court win streak, the fourth-longest in the nation, despite often sluggish play and 19 turnovers.
Sylvia Fowles had 11 points and 10 rebounds, and Scholanda Hoston had 13 points for the Tigers, who trailed 49-47 with 6:26 left before pulling away.
LSU freshmen contributed nine points in the decisive run that put the Tigers comfortably ahead 63-49 with two minutes left. Quianna Chaney had five of her 10 points on a 3-pointer and pull-up jumper and Fowles had four points.
"If we were going to lose to anybody, it might as well be to the No. 1 team in the country," Southwest Missouri coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson said. "You can tell why they're the No. 1 team."
LSU's win marked the 600th for the program in its 30th season.
NO. 2 STANFORD 71, MIZZOU 55: Brooke Smith scored 16 and Kelley Suminski added 13 points on her 22nd birthday to lead the visiting Cardinal. Smith took over inside in the second half, shooting 6-for-8. Megan Roney led Missouri with 13 points. LaToya Bond, the Tigers' second-leading scorer (12.9), was scoreless in the first half and finished with seven points.
Leading 29-21 at halftime, the Cardinal scored 15 of the next 21, including eight from Smith. A 13-0 run pushed Stanford's lead to 60-31. Missouri used a 15-5 run to narrow the gap. Stanford entered the game allowing 48.3 points per game, third fewest in the country. The Cardinal limited the Tigers to 35 percent shooting and outrebounded them 45-23.
"At halftime, we talked about taking care of the ball," said Candice Wiggins, Stanford's top scorer at 17.1 points per game who led the Cardinal with eight points in the first half. "I think once we sort of controlled everything and we were able to get into our own flow, it just took off."
Tiffany Brooks, a transfer from Kansas State, played her first game for Missouri. She scored six on 3-for-15 shooting in 33 minutes.
Missouri coach Cindy Stein, whose team faces national contenders in Big 12 play every season, called Stanford one of the top teams. "I think we're gonna see them in Indianapolis in the Final Four," Stein said.
NO. 3 DUKE 66, NO. 20 PURDUE 48: Monique Currie had 22 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists to lead the Blue Devils in the Boilermaker Blockbuster. Wanisha Smith added 12 points and Mistie Williams had a career-high 14 rebounds for Duke, which extended its win streak to eight games.
Erin Lawless scored 17 and Katie Gearlds had 16 for Purdue, which shot a season-low 28 percent from the field and went through two scoring droughts. After whittling a 13-point Duke lead to two in the second half, the Boilermakers went the next 8:31 without a field goal. The Blue Devils outscored Purdue 17-2 in that span. Currie had eight points during the run, including a three-point play off an acrobatic layup that got Duke rolling.
"Monique is doing an unbelievable job for us," coach Gail Goestenkors said. "She has an air of confidence that flows through the whole team."
The Boilermakers missed 13 straight shots, spanning 9:40 from the end of the first half and beginning of the second, to squander a lead. Duke outscored Purdue 19-0 during the drought to turn a six-point deficit into a 34-21 lead with 16 minutes left.
NO. 12 TEXAS TECH 87, ARK. ST. 53: Alesha Robertson scored 21 and Chesley Dabbs added 17 to lead the Red Raiders in a Duel in the Desert first-round game. Robertson connected on 5 of 6 shots during the second half in Las Vegas, when Texas Tech outscored Arkansas State 44-25.
Texas Tech opened the second half with a 19-5 run after leading 43-28 at halftime. Judith Smith added 12 points for Texas Tech, and Cisti Greenwalt tallied 10 points and a team-high 12 rebounds and Erin Grant had 10 points and a team-high six assists.
Adrianne Davie led the Indians with 14 points and seven rebounds, and Rudy Sims had seven points and six assists.
The game included a 5-minute delay during the first half when a bat took flight through the arena. Texas Tech assistant coach Roger Reding helped capture the bat when he threw a towel over it and stopped it from flying.
NO. 22 RUTGERS 66, CLEMSON 51: The host Scarlet Knights used tenacious defense to force 24 turnovers and scored 11 of the final 13 points from the free-throw line. Rutgers made 16 of 22 free throws in the second half and 18-of-27 total. Chelsea Newton led Rutgers with 17 points, including 9-of-10 from the line.
Clemson pulled to 43-38 with 9:30 left, but the Scarlet Knights regained a double-digit lead with just over two minutes to play. Reggie Maddox scored a career-high 18 points, all in the second half, for the Tigers. Julie Talley, Clemson's second-leading scorer, was held scoreless.
NEW MEXICO 61, NO. 23 ARIZ. ST. 45: Abbie Letz scored 16 and the host Lobos held Arizona State to a season-low point total. ASU shot a season-low 30 percent and had its six-game win streak halted. Mandi Moore added 12 points for the Lobos, who won despite having more turnovers (24) than field goals (22).
Amy Denson led ASU with 14 points and Kristen Kovesdy added 10. Guard Kylan Loney, the team's leading scorer (13.8 per game) failed to score, going 0-for-7 from the field before fouling out with 2:13 left.
NO. 24 IOWA 80, DRAKE 69: Crystal Smith scored a career-high 33 and Jamie Cavey added 16 points, 13 rebounds and seven blocks for the visiting Hawkeyes. Iowa scored the first six and never trailed and led by as many as 20 in the second half before going scoreless for almost six minutes. Erin Dohrmann led Drake with a career-high 25 points.
Drake trailed 54-34 midway through the second half, then went on a 19-6 run to cut the lead to 60-53 on Dohrmann's 3-pointer with 5:05 remaining. Another 3 by Dohrmann brought the Bulldogs to 69-61 with 1:33 left, but they got no closer. Iowa coach Lisa Bluder picked up her third straight victory over Drake, where she coached 10 years before taking the Iowa job in 2000.
NO. 25 K-STATE 71, ALABAMA 52: Megan Mahoney scored 22 to lead Kansas State in the Triple Crown Classic at Southwest Missouri State. After taking a 30-29 halftime lead, the Wildcats went on a 24-7 run to take a 54-36 lead with 8:23 left behind nine points from Mahoney. Alabama, which shot 45 percent in the first half, went 3-for-16 in the first 12 minutes after the break and had seven turnovers. Marverly Nettles led Alabama with 17 points.
