Baylor coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson had to hold back tears in her post-game press conference, but it was not because she was disappointed in her team’s play in LSU’s 31-point victory Monday night in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Mulkey-Robertson said she and Pokey Chatman met to shake hands before tip-off when Chatman allegedly told her something inappropriate. After the game, Chatman pulled her hand away from Mulkey-Robertson when the two coaches met again to shake hands.
“No matter what you feel toward somebody, you don’t say that in a pregame to another coach,” Mulkey-Robertson said.
Mulkey-Roberston would not repeat what Chatman said before the game but suggested to reporters that they ask Chatman about her comments to Mulkey-Robertson.
“Why don’t you ask her,” Mulkey-Roberston said. “And make sure her administration is in here when she repeats it too.”
Chatman was tight-lipped about the incident after the game but said she did not say anything questionable to Mulkey-Robertson, and the story was probably exaggerated.
“That was just an exchange between two people in a profession and probably [went] a little bit out of context because I snatched this dog-bitten hand away [after the game],” Chatman said. “I promise you it is blown out of context. I’ll just leave it at that.”
But Mulkey-Robertson was consistent in her accusations of Chatman.
“She doesn’t have the right to tell me that,” Mulkey-Robertson said. “She hasn’t beaten me enough. She hasn’t won enough to say something like that to me.”
Chatman said she did not completely hear Mulkey-Robertson’s comments when they met to shake hands at the end of the game.
“[It was] really hard to hear – something regarding ‘professional’ and ‘wishing luck’,” Chatman said. “I didn’t stick around long enough. I was trying to get this hand away and congratulate the rest of her staff and get to the locker room.”
Mulkey-Robertson said she was trying to address Chatman’s pregame comments when they met to shake hands after the game.
The game’s extracurricular activities overshadowed LSU’s dominance in its 88-57 route of Baylor.
With 16:58 left in the second half and the Lady Tigers adding to their 23-point halftime lead, Mulkey-Robertson substituted five new players to replace her starters.
But the replacements, like everything else for Baylor last night, did not work.
“When you’re getting beat by 20, and you’re sitting on that bench, those players are going ‘coach, give me a shot,'” Mulkey-Robertson said. “We weren’t cutting into the lead and making a run and I thought ‘let these guys get some game-experience.”
Mulkey-Robertson put her starters back on the floor about a minute-and-a-half later.
Senior guard Seimone Augustus led LSU with 29 points on 13-of-21 shooting.
Sophomore center Sylvia Fowles had her 12th double-double of the season at halftime, finishing with 17 points and 14 rebounds.
“We really didn’t know what [defense] they were going to come out in,” Augustus said. “We knew we had had to do, and that was execute our motion offense, and it was very effective. I guess we could say our script for the game was to get Sylvia some paint touches…and that opened up a lot of opportunities for us to get some outside shots and some drives.”
Senior guard Scholanda Hoston broke out of her recent shooting slump, finishing the game with 14 points including 3-of-4 shooting from behind the arc.
“We went out, and we executed, and we did all the things that we are capable of doing as a team,” Hoston said. “We just happened to put it all together in that first half.”
Chatman said she was pleased with her bench players who contributed 22 points. Senior forward Florence Williams came off the bench to post 11 points and six rebounds in 19 minutes of play.
“I thought the play of our bench was critical,” Chatman said. “Florence Williams coming in there when Ashley [Thomas] goes to the bench, I thought it was all-around a good effort.”
The Lady Tigers held Baylor to 32.4 percent shooting and nine free-throw attempts compared to the Lady Tigers’ 24 attempts.
“They whipped our rear-ends tonight. I don’t make excuses,” Mulkey-Robertson said. “They won at every phase of the game.”
All-American forward Sophia Young scored 17 points, but most of the points came in the second half with the game seemingly out of Baylor’s grasp.
Sophomore guard Angela Tisdale, who is seventh in nation in assists, was held to 13 points and 4 assists in 30 minutes.
“You get frustrated, but you got to keep pushing,” Tisdale said. “You got to get motivated for the freshmen because they don’t want to see you down then they get down on themselves.”
 
Contact Kyle Whitfield at [email protected]