By ANDRE CHAMPAGNE, Tiger Rag Staff Reporter
The No. 5 LSU women’s basketball team dropped its Southeastern Conference opener to the first ranked team it played this season in No. 11 Kentucky, 80-78, on Thursday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Kentucky (14-1) won it on a three-pointer by Tonie Morgan with .05 seconds left, but it also won the game in the paint by outrebounding the Tigers (14-1) by 45-29 and by 17-4 in offensive rebounds for 18 Kentucky second-chance points to four for the Tigers.
“I’m just stunned that we got outrebounded like we did,” LSU coach Kim Mulkey said. “That literally was the difference in the game.”
LSU came came in No. 2 in the country in rebounds with 51.23, but against mostly questionable competition. Kentucky, meanwhile, has a 72-62 win over No. 13 Louisville and a 74-66 loss to No. 7 Maryland.
“The entire game was lost because of rebounding, and we’ve got to fix that,” Mulkey said.
The Tigers will not get a lot of time to improve that in practice as they play at No. 12 Vanderbilt (14-0, 1-0 SEC) on Sunday (4 p.m., ESPN).
LSU’s lead rebounder was junior guard Mikaylah Williams with eight. Its post players combined for a shockingly low 13 rebounds. So, what went wrong?
“Well, we don’t block out. That’s one thing,” Mulkey said. “They’re taller than we are, so you better put a body on them. We think we’re just going to go out there and out-jump somebody. You’re not going to do that in this league. So, we’ll break it down and be in the film room (Friday) and show them.”
Kentucky 6-foot-5 senior forward Teonni Key grabbed a game-high 16 rebounds, which was more than the Tigers’ 13 by their four post players – Kate Koval (2), Amiya Joyner (5), Grace Knox (4) and ZaKiyah Johnson (2).
“I think I can tell them whatever I want, but they can see it for themselves,” Williams said when asked what advice she’d offer to her inside teammates. “They can see what not rebounding does. We don’t end up winning. We end up getting out-rebounded 45-29. And we can’t play the type of basketball that we want to play getting out-rebounded. So, they know that it’s time to go back to the drawing board.”
Koval got into foul trouble early in the first half, which forced LSU to play its younger forwards more.
“We’ve got to get more production from a few other players, and they know who they are,” Mulkey said. “And I’d like to tell you that they were closely guarded, and they were really tough on them. But no, they just didn’t play well tonight.”
Freshmen Johnson and Knox combined for only eight points and six rebounds.
“I still know those young ladies are so talented,” Mulkey said. “They are getting their first dose and taste of the SEC. They had to guard 6-7 and 6-5 in there. They will remember these moments and remember these things, because that’s what competitors do. And so, we’ll help them see how the little things at this level matter.”
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