In a true nail biter of a college basketball game, LSU women’s hoops fell just short against Florida, 72-73, despite a career night from Khayla Pointer. Additionally, Head Coach Kim Mulkey had a strengthened squad as Autumn Newby returned from a recent foot injury.
“We can beat anyone in this league, we can also lose to anyone in this league,” Mulkey said earlier this season. That held true today as Khalya Pointer’s career high 35 points was not enough to hold off the unranked, but red-hot Florida Gators. This will cap off a week to forget for LSU basketball as the Men’s and Women’s teams will combine for an 0-3 record in SEC play.
They say offense doesn’t travel well in basketball, and despite Pointer’s performance, you can look to that saying to explain how the Tigers weren’t able to walk away with this one. “I thought Khayla Pointer almost single handedly won the game for us,” Coach Mulkey said after the game. Pointer’s buzzer-beater three-point attempt was the only make in nine tries on the day. Mulkey has made it known that not having three-point shooters will not be an excuse, however, as she is confident they can get points without the shot. Pointer was also the only Tiger to reach double digits in scoring. Fellow bucket getter Alexis Morris had an uncharacteristically off day for LSU. The day was sort of summed up toward the last possession as the Tigers, down four, had to take 22 seconds off the clock to settle for a two-point bucket.
The other side of the ball wasn’t up to the Tigers’ expectation either, as 73 points is the most given up this year in a loss and second most given up in all. Florida’s Kiara Smith took over and constantly drew fouls, getting 10 points off of her 13 free throw attempts. LSU has to be better about not allowing these guards to draw contact and force the defense into compromising positions. LSU could look at the physicality brought by Florida and learn from how the Gators guarded Payne and Morris all game. The SEC is full of great guards and the Tigers need to take any example they can get on shutting down great scorers.
The out of character performances are ultimately why this game doesn’t scare me much in the grand scheme of things. They played on the road against a team with a lot of confidence right now, and despite their mistakes only lost by one. I hate to be cliche, but this should be a good learning game for LSU as they prepare for their second straight road game on Thursday against the Arkansas Razorbacks. Mulkey herself reinforced that thought postgame saying, “I hope we learn from this.”