By ANDRE CHAMPAGNE, Tiger Rag Staff Reporter
The No. 6 LSU women’s basketball team will host one of the biggest games in program history on Saturday night when the Tigers take on No. 3 South Carolina in a sold-out Pete Maravich Assembly Center (7:30 pm., ABC).
LSU (22-3, 8-3 Southeastern Conference) is seeking its first win over South Carolina (24-2, 10-1 SEC) since Jan. 12, 2012. Kim Mulkey is also pursuing her first victory against Dawn Staley since taking over the Tigers’ program in 2021. Even though she’s 0-5 against South Carolina at LSU, Mulkey is solely focused on making sure her team is positioned well for the postseason.
“You’re trying to win as many games in this league as you can – first to get a top four seed in the SEC tournament – then to get a first and second round game here,” Mulkey said on her radio show on Tuesday night. “We’re on track to do that again.”
The Tigers will need to take better care of the ball than they did in last week’s loss to No. 2 Texas (23-3, 8-3 SEC). In addition to limiting turnovers, Mulkey said her team has to be able to create better shots when things don’t go to plan.
“It got to the point where there was just a lot of one-on-one basketball. I call that rec ball,” Mulkey said. “You’re not going to win anything doing that and I just felt like that’s part of losing your composure. You quit executing and so you say, ‘I’m just going to take you one-on-one to the basket and consequently take bad shots.’ So, shot selection was very, very poor in the Texas game.”
When it comes to high-impact games in the SEC, veteran leadership is crucial. In LSU’s three losses this season, senior guard Flau’jae Johnson averaged 8.6 points on 32.2% shooting, along with 3.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists. Johnson, who has yet to consistently deliver in key moments for LSU this season, will look to make a statement against the Gamecocks.
“I want to have a good game. I want to play well, I want to defend well and I want to lead well,” Johnson said on her appearance on SportsCenter Thursday afternoon. “I feel like this year, my role has changed and I have to be more of a leader and so, me just doing my thing, leading my team, me playing confident, is going to get the results that we want.”
South Carolina enters Saturday’s contest fresh off a 93-50 win over No. 22 Tennessee (16-6, 8-2 SEC), its most dominant win of the season. The Gamecocks shot a program-record 69% from the field and Mulkey said Staley’s squad presents many challenges.
“They just have so much depth and they’re long inside,” Mulkey said. “Raven Johnson, their point guard, she is just a tremendous leader for their program and then you add (Ta’Niya) Latson to the mix and then Tessa (Johnson), the three-point shooter. I mean, what don’t they have? We’ve got our hands full. They’re very, very good.”
South Carolina is led by 5-9 point guard Raven Johnson. The senior from Atlanta, Georgia, has been with the Gamecocks for four years and is the heartbeat of the team. Mulkey said Johnson can change the outcome of a game in several ways.
“She’s developed parts of her game that a lot of people probably thought were not very good when she first got there, but she can do it all and she’s just a great point guard,” Mulkey said. “She is not worried about her points. She wants everybody around her better and yet if she needs to shoot it, she will.”
Johnson is averaging 9.9 points on 50% shooting, along with 4.3 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 1.6 steals per contest. It will be instrumental for the Tigers to limit her productivity on Saturday night.
While the outcome will be difficult to predict, it is safe to say the Pete Maravich Assembly Center will be rocking.
“I know it’s going to be a tremendous atmosphere,” Mulkey said. “You just want to compete and see what happens. We weren’t supposed to beat Texas and we did. Home court does matter and I hope that we play as aggressive and as good as we needed to against Texas and I hope we can do that against South Carolina.”
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