Khayla Pointer hit the biggest three of her career to send her Tigers to the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament.
With 49 seconds left in the game, and the game tied at 77, Pointer hit a go-ahead three to secure the win for LSU, allowing them to advance to the second round of the March Madness tournament on Saturday night in Baton Rouge. “It’s March,” Pointer said with a laugh in the post game press conference.
The LSU Tigers came into Saturday’s NCAA Tournament first round matchup as a three seed in the Spokane regional, set to face the 14-seed Jackson State Tigers out of the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
Jackson State came into Saturday’s matchup on a 21-game win streak, not having lost since late December. With LSU having as good of a chance as they’ve had to make a deep postseason run in a long time, Jackson State wouldn’t let it come easy.
“I don’t know if I ever sit and say ‘Oh we’re going to blow this team out’, ‘Oh it’s going to be a close game.’ I think all we do is we just sit there and we write down tendencies, what they do well, what we need to do,” Coach Mulkey said. “We’re just focusing on what we have to do to try to win.”
Pointer ended the game with a game-high 26 points, along with eight assists, nine rebounds and four steals, the first player in the last 20 years to put up these numbers in an NCAA Tournament game. Jailin Cherry also shot efficiently, scoring 24 points.
Whenever LSU couldn’t connect from the perimeter, Faustine Aifuwa bailed them out. Aifuwa finished with a double-double in 17 points and 14 rebounds, not to mention getting seven blocks in the meanwhile.
“She bails us out a lot,” Cherry said about Aifuwa after the game, “if our legs get a little tired and they get by us we know she’s right there in the post to take care of it. We are super proud of her today.”
Miya Crump led Jackson State with 21 points, including four three-pointers and five boards. Ameshya Williams-Holliday recorded a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds.
LSU had some rust to shake off to start the game, as the Tigers have not played in 15 days since their SEC Tournament loss to Kentucky. Jackson State stayed with LSU throughout the first quarter, but once Cherry saw them getting close, she went to work. Cherry scored 10 of her 24 points in the second quarter and she scored eight straight to help LSU go into halftime with a 41-28 lead.
When LSU had a 52-46 lead with just under four minutes in the third quarter, Jackson State put their head down and fought back to keep their season alive. They contained LSU and took the lead with about a minute left in the third quarter.
Jackson State captured the momentum headed into the fourth quarter after ending the third with a one point lead. Crump and Williams-Holliday were making all their shots and helped Jackson State extend their lead to as much to 10, with just under five minutes left in the game.
As Jackson State fans cheered in the PMAC, and Jackson State players felt the upset win on their fingertips, Khayla Pointer did all she could to not let her career at LSU end earlier than expected. Her fellow seniors felt the same way, and LSU began their comeback.
“This team, we’re relentless,” Pointer said following the win. “We weren’t ready to go home.”
Aifuwa cut Jackson State’s lead to six with two layups, and Pointer cut it to three with a layup and a made foul shot. After Cherry cut Jackson State’s lead to one with a layup off a turnover, Pointer gave LSU the lead with two made foul shots.“The game’s not over,” Coach Mulkey told her team. “We’ve got to change the momentum here, we have to pick it up in the full court [press].” Jackson State still would not back down, as Daja Woodard tied the game at 77 with a put-back layup.
Pointer would not let Jackson State any further, however, as she hit a three to permanently put LSU ahead. “I work on those shots every single day, after practice, shoot before practice,” Pointer said. “The ball came around, and I just shot it with confidence. I didn’t think twice about it, and obviously I’m happy it went in.”
After Alexis Morris hit three foul shots, LSU secured the first round, 83-77 NCAA Tournament win over Jackson State, the first NCAA Tournament win for LSU’s senior class.
LSU advances to the Round of 32 of the NCAA Tournament and will host sixth-seeded Ohio State at the PMAC on Monday night at 7 p.m. LSU came out with an exciting win to open their NCAA Tournament run in front of a packed PMAC and they expect the same Monday against Ohio State.
LSU women’s basketball graduate student center Faustine Aifuwa (24) points at graduate student guard Jailin Cherry (1) Saturday, March 19, 2022, after LSU’s 83-77 win against Jackson State in the first round of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on North Stadium Drive in Baton Rouge, La.
