LSU’s offense vanishes
Turns out the weather in Louisiana the past couple of days was a perfect metaphor for LSU’s offense Friday evening against South Carolina: ice cold.
The #5 Tigers (20-1, 5-1) dropped its first game of the 2024-2025 season by losing to the defending champion #2 Gamecocks (19-1, 7-0) by a score of 66 to 56. As a team LSU shot an abysmal 29.9 percent overall and the 56 points are a season low.
“I thought our defense and I thought South Carolina’s defense was good,” Kim Mulkey said. “Low scoring game. Both teams, you know, scouted each other pretty darn good. It wasn’t an entertaining game from an offensive standpoint, but I didn’t think it was a boring game. I thought it was a very good game.”
LSU had a 22-21 lead after the first quarter, but the Tigers would only score eight points in the second quarter on 3-20 shooting. No that’s not a typo. Also not a typo? LSU missed its final 14 shots of the second quarter, yet somehow only went into the halftime break down three.
In the third quarter, Carolina rode an 8-0 advantage to push its lead to nine and it forced Mulkey to call a timeout. Whatever Dawn Staley and her staff drew up defensively at the end of the first quarter was the exact perfect strategy because it totally flummoxed LSU’s offense for the final 30 minutes of the game.
Final: LSU picks up its 17th straight loss to South Carolina, this time falling 66-56.
Tigers shot 13/57 across the second, third and fourth quarters, and four of their five starters had at least three fouls.
LSU now 0-5 vs. Gamecocks under Kim Mulkey https://t.co/yqaBU9NXtw
— Reed Darcey (@byreeddarcey) January 25, 2025
Turnovers and LSU’s inability to defend without fouling also didn’t help the Tigers’ cause Friday. LSU turned it over 17 times and the Tigers sent Carolina to the free throw line 26 times, while LSU only shot nine free throws.
One of the biggest calling cards of the Staley Era is Carolina just being deeper than their opponents and that showed up again Friday. The Gamecock bench outscored LSU’s 31 to 2. In fact, Carolina’s leading scorer, Joyce Edwards, came off the bench and scored 14 points in 18 minutes.
Even though LSU turned the ball over 17 times and the offense went into the freezer for the final three quarters (22 percent shooting!) LSU still played South Carolina pretty tough all things considered. The Tigers out-rebounded Carolina by a 51-39 margin and it’s not like South Carolina put up a shooting clinic. As a team the Gamecocks shot 37 percent overall and only hit two of 13 three-point attempts. Mulkey seemed encouraged after the game…well, as encouraged as you can be after losing a 17th straight game to an opponent and dropping to 0-5 in the Mulkey era.
“I learned we can hang with the best in the country,” Mulkey said. “And I do think they’re the best in the country.”
Just remember to bring some shooting next time.