A pretty bad loss
For the third time this season the LSU women’s basketball team went on the road to a ranked conference opponent, fought hard, but ultimately came up short as Alabama beat LSU 88-85 in overtime.
LSU drops to 27-3 on the year and 12-3 in the league.
“We just needed to match their intensity and their grit,” Kim Mulkey said, “and we did in spurts. We did it when we were behind, trying to catch up. But I guess, you know, sometimes you just have to give credit to the opponent, and I think I want to do that tonight.”
LSU once again fell behind by double digits and led for all of 23 seconds in the loss. Alabama led by as many as 13 points but LSU showed great fight in even getting the game to overtime and had a chance to steal it in the extra period.
Trailing by two with 30 seconds remaining, LSU got two shots and the ball because of an intentional foul by Alabama’s Sarah Ashlee Barker on Flau’Jae Johnson. Johnson, who was also called for a foul on Barker, took an elbow from Barker that bloodied her lip. It was both players’ fifth fouls so both were out for the game’s final 30 seconds.
Williams split the free throws and on the ensuing LSU offensive possession, her layup attempt was blocked by Essence Cody with five seconds remaining.
LSU got one final shot to try and tie the game but Williams’ three-point attempt from the top of the key bounced out and the Tide triumphed.
Considering Alabama led for 40 minutes and change, there wasn’t a lot separating the two teams in the final box. Each team shot 46 percent from the floor and 33 percent from three. The difference was LSU was only able to knock down three three-pointers, while Alabama hit seven; and while both teams shot 23 free throws, LSU only hit 14, while Alabama hit 17.
Flau’Jae Johnson played maybe her worst game of the season. She only scored six points and had more turnovers, three, than made baskets, two.
Aneesah Morrow just missed out on a double-double (16 points, 9 rebounds) but she had good hands defensively and was credited with five steals and a pair of blocks.
Williams led LSU with 22 points and had a pretty hot hand Thursday night. Williams was 8-17 overall, was 2-4 from three, and 4-6 at the line.
If LSU wants to make a deep run in March they’ll need a lot more of these contributions from players outside the Big 3 of Johnson/Morrow/Williams. Sa’Myah Smith had 15 points, while Shayeann Day-Wilson had seven; Miracle Sheppard had 10 points and Kailyn Gilbert had nine off the bench.
But can LSU make that deep run? They’re not giving me a lot of confidence. The bench is inconsistent at best and non-existent at worst, the starting five is really a starting three, and for whatever reason LSU’s had multiple slow starts throughout SEC play. Jarrett pointed out that through these 15 SEC games, LSU’s been outscored in the first quarter nine times. We get on Brian Kelly for seemingly never having his teams ready to play Week 1, at what point do we start wondering what is Kim Mulkey doing?
The bigger the sample size grows, the more it appears that this LSU team is, at best, a Sweet 16 team, and solidly not a national championship contender. A Sweet 16 is of course a very good season, but it seems foolhardy at best to hope for a deep NCAA Tournament run.
LSU will close out the regular season at home this Sunday against Ole Miss, and then they’ll be off to Greenville to partake in the SEC Tournament. The Ole Miss game tips off at 3:00 and will be on SEC Network.