By MARY FOSTER
AP Sports Writer
January 27, 2002

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Chantelle Anderson scored 28 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and Zuzi Klimesova scored 24 points as No. 6 Vanderbilt beat LSU 64-53 Sunday.

LSU, with only two starters over 6-feet, couldn't stop the 6-6 Anderson and the 6-2 Klimesova.

Vanderbilt (19-4, 5-2 Southeastern Conference) led by as many as 22 points in the second half.

LSU (11-7, 4-3) snapped a three-game winning streak. The Tigers had won five straight games at home.

LSU was led by Alysha Smith's 16 points. Ke-Ke Tardy scored 12, and Temeka Johnson had 11 points and five assists.

Ashley McElhiney had eight assists for Vanderbilt.

LSU outrebounded Vanderbilt 33-32 despite the Commodores' size advantage. The Tigers, after getting no offensive rebounds in the first half, finished with 11.

Vanderbilt, the nation's best shooting team at 54.3 percent, shot 57 percent. LSU shot 46 percent, but made just 3-of-11 foul shots. Both teams were cold from 3-point range. Vanderbilt made 2-of-9, LSU 2-of-7.

Vanderbilt jumped out to a 13-2 lead. While Vandy was making 7-of-10, LSU missed five straight.

The Commodores took a 23-6 lead with 8:28 remaining in the first half. By that time, Anderson and Klimesova each had 10 points, with Jenni Benningfield's 3 Vanderbilt's only other points.

Roneeka Hodges' basket at 7:02 sparked an 8-2 LSU run that cut the deficit to 25-14 with 4:32 left in the half.

The Commodores stretched their lead to 17 with 3:03 left on a basket by Klimesova. But the Tigers staged a small rally over the closing minutes, outscoring Vanderbilt 8-2 to cut it to 34-22 at the half.

Vanderbilt Head Coach Jim Foster:
We didn't like ourselves Thursday (Florida loss). We have turned into a very good defensive team and we have to keep growing on our offense. We still lead the nation in field goal percentage, but we have to get better offensively.

We played well tonight - we wanted to guard their perimeter players and we did a good job. They (LSU) have a good scheme - they run a great offense.

Zuzi Klimesova:
We have always been unselfish. I was looking for Chantelle, Jenni was looking for Chantelle, then Chantelle was looking for us - we did have 25 assists in the game and that shows we were unselfish.

Chantelle Anderson:
I've had better shooting nights - my teammates did a great job of getting the ball to me - I need to make a consistent effort to go up strong every time.

On Zuzi and Chantelle scoring 54 of VU's 64 points
We have so many good players on this team - we just had great team execution in getting us (Zuzi and Chantelle) the shots.

LSU Head Coach Sue Gunter:
First of all, I would like to thank our sponsors and the media for helping us get an outstanding crowd to watch the game. It's nice to see 8000 fans in the stands. Vanderbilt was just not cooperating with us!

We just didn't have an answer for Zuzi (Klimesova) and Chantelle (Anderson). They were spectacular along with McElhiney (Ashley) who just makes all the right decisions. Jim (Foster) does a great job with that team. Aiysha (Smith) and KeKe (Tardy) had their hands full tonight with Anderson (Chantelle).

We were trying to put a 2-3 matchup on them and then double-down on Anderson. When she gets you posted that down and deep - she is tough.

You just have to give McElhiney credit - she just makes things happen.

We hoped they wouldn't shoot as well. We did some good things. If you do a good job of covering the perimeter, then you leave a big hole. They have a great inside/outside game.

KeKe Tardy:
It was difficult because they are a lot taller - they are big and strong - Zuzi (Klimesova) - you can't get much better than that.