Defense travels, as an old adage goes.

And No. 11 LSU (22-4, 10-3) put the mantra on display Thursday late in a back-and-forth battle at Mississippi State (15-10, 6-7).

The Lady Tigers held their hosts scoreless for nearly seven minutes to mount the final, largest run of a 71-59 victory.

Jailin Cherry blocked a shot with just over five minutes remaining, and fellow senior guard Alexis Morris hit a jumper at the other end to knot the game back at 56-56.

The game-tying basket marked the first of 15 straight by coach Kim Mulkey's squad while stifling the Lady Bulldogs for a scoreless 6:37 until a 3-pointer in the final seconds with the game out of reach.

Morris led all players with 23 points, including 15 in the final quarter alone.

Khayla Pointer and Cherry joined her in double figures with 18 and 10, respectively.

Pointer also finished with four rebounds and four assists, and Cherry had eight rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots.

Autumn Newby and Faustine Aifuwa provided the post presence with six points and 12 rebounds each and another pair of blocked shots by Aifuwa.

The Lady Tigers have now won five straight games, including three on the road, to pull back even with No. 12 Tennessee (21-5, 10-3) and No. 17 Florida (20-6, 10-3) for second in the SEC standings.

LSU hosts the Gators at 3 p.m. Sunday and Alabama at 7 p.m. next Thursday before closing the regular season in Knoxville, Tenn., at 1 p.m. next Sunday.

Pointer scored 10 of her points in the first quarter and helped the Lady Tigers gain early control with an 11-0 run late in the opening period.

LSU stretched it lead to as many as 13 points in the second quarter.

But Mississippi State battled all the way back to within 34-31 at the midway mark and set the stage for a back-and-forth second half.

The teams traded runs throughout the third and fourth quarters with neither managing to separate by any more than five points until the Lady Tigers' final push.

Senior guard Anastasia Hayes led the Lady Bulldogs with 17 points, five assists and four rebounds.

And former John Curtis standout and Tulane transfer JerKaila Jordan added 12 points and seven rebounds.