BATON ROUGE, La. – The Hampton University women's basketball team lost its first game of the 2013-14 season on Wednesday night, as No. 15/18 LSU beat the Lady Pirates 73-54 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

The Lady Pirates fell to 2-1 on the season.

Senior guard Nicole Hamilton (Hampton, Va.) led the way with a career-high 27 points – 21 of which came in the second half – on 10-for-19 shooting. Freshman guard Malia Tate-DeFreitas (Harrisburg, Pa.) added 19 points and seven rebounds.

Redshirt-sophomore forward Brielle Ward (Baltimore, Md.) had a team-high 11 rebounds.

Both teams got off to a slow start, and the Lady Pirates led 6-2 at the 15:51 mark of the first half after a 3-pointer from Tate-DeFreitas – and she added another trey at the 13:18 mark to give the Lady Pirates a 9-4 lead.

Junior guard Kenia Cole (Silver Spring, Md.) added a trey of her own with 10:25 left in the first half to give Hampton a 14-10 lead.

LSU scored the next seven points to take a 17-14 lead at the 7:24 mark. Overall, the Lady Tigers closed the first half with a 24-6 run, going into the break with a 34-20 lead.

Tate-DeFreitas led Hampton with eight points at the half.

Hampton opened the second half with a 6-1 spurt, cutting LSU's lead to 35-26 with 17:56 left to play on a 3-pointer from Hamilton. Another Hamilton trey at the 16:41 mark brought Hampton within eight, trailing LSU 37-29.

The Lady Tigers went on a 12-3 run to take a 49-32 lead with 11:18 to play, before a 10-2 Hampton run cut the Lady Pirates' deficit to 51-42 with 6:45 to play following a fast-break layup from Hamilton.

Hamilton hit another 3-pointer with 4:19 left to cut LSU's lead to 57-48.

LSU responded with a 13-3 run, going up 70-51 after a pair of free throws from Shanece McKinney with 1:08 to play.

The Lady Pirates shot 30.2 percent (19-for-63) from the floor and made nine of their 36 3-pointers. LSU (3-1) shot 44.1 percent (26-for-59) from the floor, while also holding a 53-38 edge on the glass.

McKinney, Theresa Plaisance, and Jasmine Rhodes each led LSU with 14 points.

The Lady Pirates will head to San Marcos, Texas on Saturday to take on Texas State at 2 p.m. EST. For more information on Hampton University basketball, please call the Office of Sports Information at (757) 727-5811, or visit the official Pirates website at www.hamptonpirates.com.