By ANDRE CHAMPAGNE, Tiger Rag Staff Reporter
The No. 12 LSU women’s basketball team secured its first win over an AP-Top 2 team since 2008 (win over No. 2 UNC in Elite Eight) after shocking No. 2 Texas 70-65 on Sunday in front of a sold-out Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The win is head coach Kim Mulkey’s first SEC win against a top-5 team with the Tigers.
Even though it’s the best regular season win Mulkey’s had with the Tigers in her time in Baton Rouge, for her, it was just another game.
“Every game in my world is big. All of them,” Mulkey said after the win. “I respect every opponent, I take the same approach in conference, especially of preparation. If we’re going to get beat, they’re going to have to make plays to beat us and those two in the first two losses did, but it wasn’t for our lack of preparation. I tend to think that final four and those games were special in the runs we’ve had in the playoffs.”
In the final 1:30 of the game, junior guard Mikaylah Williams hit a three to put the Tigers up 66-59. The Longhorns made a pair of free throws to make it 66-61 with a minute to go. Then, sophomore guard Jada Richard would hit a pair of free throws to put LSU up 68-61 with 50 seconds left to play. LSU’s defense would hold the Longhorns’ offense, and the Tigers would hand Texas its first loss of the season.
“I’m not saying it was all the way lucky, but I knew the shot clock was running down,” Williams said about her contested three-point shot. “Amiya set up a pretty good screen for me to get open and I know I practiced shooting shots like that, so when it came out of my hand, it felt good and I knew it was going in.”
LSU and Texas both went into today’s matchup with top-3 scoring offenses in the nation, but it was the defenses that came to play. Not only did LSU outrebound Texas 44-35, but it also held the Longhorns (18-1, 3-1 Southeastern Conference) to 43.9% shooting on the day.
Williams led LSU (16-2, 2-2 SEC) in scoring with 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting (53.8%). She also added seven rebounds, four assists and five steals.
Four other Tigers scored 10 or more points, including senior guard Flau’jae Johnson (10), junior guard MiLaysia Fulwiley (10), freshman forward ZaKiyah Johnson (10) and Richard (10).
To start the fourth quarter, Texas attacked LSU in the paint and cut the lead to 10 to make it 52-42 with 8:42 remaining. Texas cut the Tigers’ lead to just three after junior guard Madison Booker knocked down a three to make it 55-52. LSU stormed right back. Richard hit a couple of free throws and hit a transition jumper to put the Tigers up 59-52 with five minutes to go.
Coming out of halftime, senior forward Amiya Joyner started the scoring after she finished a layup in the paint to make it 32-25. The Tigers went on an 11-7 run to give them their biggest lead of the game at the time after freshman forward Grace Knox scored in the paint to make it 43-32 with 4:11 remaining in the quarter. LSU outrebounded Texas 15-7 in the third quarter and went into the fourth quarter with a 50-39 lead.
In the second quarter, Texas took an early 16-12 lead after attacking the paint and making two straight shots. LSU responded with a 6-0 run to take the 18-16 lead after Fulwiley stole the ball from a defender in the midcourt and finished on the other side for the layup. Then, Williams got hot. She hit multiple contested midrange jumpers and gave the Tigers a 26-23 lead with a minute left before halftime. On the last possession of the half, Richard got a steal and then beat the buzzer with a midrange shot to send LSU into halftime with the 30-25 lead. Williams scored nine points in the second.
Flau’jae Johnson opened the game with a three-point shot to send the PMAC into a frenzy. Later, Texas took a 9-5 lead after 6-6 senior center Kyla Oldacre gave LSU some trouble in the paint, scoring 4 straight points. The Tigers responded with a 6-0 run of their own after turning defense into offense. LSU turned the ball over with its last possession of the quarter and Texas beat the buzzer with a layup to tie things at 11 each at the end of the frame. Flau’jae Johnson led scoring in the quarter with five points.
The Tigers get a week to prepare for their next game as they travel to Norman to take on No. 5 Oklahoma (14-2, 2-1 SEC) on Sunday at the Lloyd Noble Center (2 p.m., ESPN/ESPN2).
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