Huge Second Half for Louisiana Buries LSU-Shreveport 90-45

The Louisiana women's basketball team used an excellent second half performance to crush the LSU-Shreveport Pilots 90-45 in their annual education game at the Cajundome.

Louisiana is now 7-2 this season. Head coach Garry Brodhead said his team needed to adjust after a slow first half, and they did just that. After taking a 36-30 lead into halftime, the Cajuns out-scored the Pilots 54-15 in the second half.

"I thought we were pressing in the first half, so we needed to make an adjustment" Brodhead said. "I thought we shut them down in the second half. We did a great job of finding shooters and putting pressure on the ball."

LSU-Shreveport opened the game's scoring with a three-pointer, but Louisiana drilled three straight threes as part of a 12-2 run. Guard Diamond Morrison scored six quick points by making both of her early three-pointers.

Forward Tamera Johnson's three made it 17-8. The Cajuns offense made five of their first six shots and started 4-5 from three-point range.

The Pilots hit a layup as time expired in the first quarter, so Louisiana entered the second quarter with a 25-19 lead.

Louisiana started the second quarter with a 9-3 run to open up a 34-22 lead, but LSU-Shreveport answered with six straight points. They were launching shots from long distance, hitting eight of their first 14 attempts from beyond the arc early on.

The Cajuns went cold at the end of the second quarter, missing six of their last seven shot attempts. Still, they went into halftime with a slight 36-30 lead.

The third quarter was simply dominant for Louisiana. The Cajuns held the Pilots without a made field goal in the frame. They were 0-7 with 10 turnovers and only three points from the free-throw line. Louisiana took advantage, out-scoring LSU-Shreveport 21-3 in the third.

Their lead ballooned to 24 points at 57-33 at the end of the third quarter thanks to outstanding defense by the Cajuns.

From that point, Louisiana just kept rolling. They scored the first 15 points of the fourth quarter before the Pilots hit their first shot of the second half with six minutes remaining in the game. The Cajuns lead was comfortable at 72-36.

Louisiana finished strong and won 90-45. They out-scored LSU-Shreveport 54-15 in the second half to improve to 7-2 in 2021.

Louisiana's defense forced 22 total turnovers and scored 29 points off of them. Johnson had 21 points and nine rebounds for the Cajuns. Forward Ashlyn Jones had 16 and Morrison added 12.

Up next, Louisiana plays Louisiana Tech in the Cajundome on Sunday, Dec. 19 at 4:00 p.m.