Cassidy, Blodgett can’t stop LSU> Freshman attracts fans attention

BATON ROUGE, La. – The last time any of the Bayou Bengal faithful even remotely liked UMaine’s Jamie Cassidy was when she strode silently to the scorer’s table to check in just 2:51 into Saturday’s NCAA tourney first-round game.

Within a short time, fans were booing her, Lady Tigers were fouling her, and the Black Bears were relying on her. LSU coach Sue Gunter was even taking an eye off Cindy Blodgett to figure out how to slow Cassidy down.

The 6-foot-4 freshman proceeded to smack the smaller Tigers around unmercifully, providing the Black Bears with the strong inside effort they needed to take some pressure off Blodgett, the nation’s leading scorer.

Cassidy scored 13 of her 24 points in the first half, pulled down six rebounds and blocked five shots in a dominant low-post performance.

“The guys were getting me the ball at the right time and they were going in,” Cassidy said Sunday. “They were playing behind me a lot, so it was pretty easy to get the ball in and make a move.”

As a result, Cassidy – not Blodgett – was treated to most of the venom as the target of the second-largest crowd in LSU history as the Lady Tigers posted an 88-79 win.

And after that effort, she exited as quietly as she’d come in. Cassidy wasn’t invited to the postgame press conference, the Black Bears quickly exited the building to catch their bus and make a 1 a.m. charter, and reporters were left asking others to explain the play of the talented freshman.

Gunter reluctantly acknowledged that big, skilled post players have given LSU trouble all year.

“We do struggle,” she said after struggling herself for a graceful way around the issue. “It’s like you had to climb up their shins and do anything you can and get as much help as you can [to stop Maine’s post play].”

Though senior Stacey Porrini played 27 minutes and grabbed seven rebounds for Maine, Cassidy was the low-post presence on the offensive end. Porrini’s only field goal came just 52 seconds into the game.

LSU’s players took turns hacking the Methuen, Mass., native and she made 12 of 15 attempts from the line and drew the fans’ ire.

“They were getting a little aggravated because the refs started calling the fouls against them,” Cassidy said. “I don’t know if they thought they weren’t fouls, but they were.”

On the defensive end, she slowed the Tigers time after time to help Maine stay close.

The most impressive sequence occurred with Maine trailing by six just seven minutes into the second half.

Cassidy blocked two straight shots by 6-1 forward Keia Howell. And after the second block went out of bounds, she threw Howell’s third attempt back at her on the ensuing play.

And despite throwing her body around down low and contesting every shot, Cassidy didn’t commit a foul in the game.

Porrini, for one, didn’t see anything abnormal in Cassidy’s performance.

“I think Jamie did an outstanding job, and I don’t think that’s surprising,” Porrini said. “I think other teams had better watch out because she’s got a great three years ahead of her.”

To LSU’s credit, however, in the end, Gunter came up with a way to stop Cassidy. The freshman didn’t score in the final 11:39.

“What we tried to do was two things,” Gunter said. “Step up and push ’em off the block a little sooner and beat ’em to the block. And then step down and help as much as we could.”

“They adjusted halfway through the second half,” Cassidy said. “Every time I got the ball they were double-teaming me, so Cindy took over at that point.”