Maybe LSU’s more of a pretender than a contender
In what was shaping up to be maybe the biggest regular season win of the Kim Mulkey era, the #5 Tigers of LSU (25-2, 10-2) instead squandered a golden opportunity at #3 Texas and lost 65-58.
LSU led the game for nearly 30 minutes which makes the loss all the more disappointing. The Tiger offense dried up in the fourth quarter as LSU shot 18 percent and only managed nine points in the final frame.
LSU’s big three of Flau’Jae Johnson, Mikaylah Williams, and Aneesah Morrow all had good, albeit inefficient games. Johnson was listed on the injury report as “questionable” for today’s game. She managed to power through and score 16 points but needed 17 shots to get there. Williams led all players with 18 points but, like Johnson, was inefficient and needed 19 shots to achieve those 18 points. Morrow recorded her 24th double-double of the season with 15 points and 20 rebounds, but needed 15 shots to get there.
“You have no idea how hard that group is to guard,” Texas coach Vic Schaefer said after the game. “We did some different lineups, but our guys were so tough guarding them and defensively we never wavered.”
No other player on LSU’s roster scored more than three points in Sunday’s loss at Austin. If and when LSU’s season comes to an end it’ll likely be because LSU’s Big 3 can’t outpace a team with seven or eight solid contributors.
All that being said, LSU was still largely in control on the road against a top-five team. The Tiger defense limited the Longhorns to 19 first half points on 19 percent shooting, but Texas outscored LSU 46-30 in the second half.
It also helped that Texas that Madison Booker came alive in the second half. After shooting 0-11 in the first half, Booker found her shot in the second going 3-6 from the floor and a perfect 8-8 at the line. In fact, Texas’ entire team was a perfect 21-21 at the free throw line, while LSU was 13-19.
So how good is LSU? Well, with four games to go in the regular season and sitting in third place in the SEC the Tigers seems like they’re a second weekend of the NCAA Tournament team, but maybe an Elite 8 appearance is their ceiling. That’s very good of course, but unless LSU can get better point guard play or some scoring from the bench they’ll likely fall short of the program’s seventh Final Four.
And look, LSU certainly could go on a run in March. They’ve lost two (2) games this season on the road to teams that’ll likely end up being 1-seeds come Selection Sunday by a combined total of 17 points. There’s many, many more teams across the country who have far worse losses on their résumé. But kind of like last season, doesn’t the end seem almost predictable for this LSU team?
LSU will have the next couple of nights off before coming home to host Georgia at 8:00 P.M. Thursday night.