Against Tennessee, Kailyn Gilbert is a force to be reckoned with.
“They picked up the phone too late in the portal,” Gilbert said. “So I was kind of upset about that.”
Gilbert entered the transfer portal after being cut from the Arizona roster last spring. Now an LSU Tiger, Gilbert uses the Vols lack of initiative as a motivator.
“I’m glad they were too late,” Mulkey said.
Flau’jae Johnson, Mikaylah Williams and Aneesah Morrow took a backseat in LSU’s 82-77 win over Tennessee. Instead, when Tennessee was in its best position, Gilbert took her turn in the driver’s seat. She finished with 23 points, shooting 7-of-15 from the field, and 3-of-4 from three.
“Hopefully this is the start of something,” Gilbert said.
It wasn’t Gilbert’s first time making a crucial impact against Tennessee. The last time the two programs faced, Gilbert sank a contested hookshot to give LSU the 89-87 win as the clock neared zero.
“She does a good job of finding her shots,” Tennessee head coach Kim Caldwell said. “She makes big plays, she’s a good player.”
While her contribution didn’t have the thrill it did on Jan. 9, it was certainly needed in the same way.
Mikaylah Williams finished with 16 points, shooting 6-of-15 from the field, and 2-of-7 from three. But her intention was clearly to get others like Gilbert involved, adding seven assists to her performance.
However, Johnson having four fouls and Morrow having three was not part of the plan. In addition, Williams fouled out of the game with 11 seconds remaining in the game. Johnson finished with 12 points, and Morrow added 14 points and 14 rebounds.
Gilbert helped fill in that gap, but she didn’t do it alone.
Mjracle Sheppard added eight points along with five rebounds, and true freshman Jada Richard added another five points.
“Coach Mulkey emphasizes impact, like what can you do to produce, what can you make happen on the court,” Sheppard said. “My first instinct is to make something happen.”
LSU has leaned on its “Big Three” all season, and would merely see sparks from a rotation of three to four other players. So when it came to depth, Tennessee had a major advantage, as it was able to rotate five new players in and out at once.
But having depth only matters if it’s effective. Unfortunately for Tennessee, it plagued itself with 19 turnovers, and LSU converted those turnovers into 24 additional points.
On the other hand, LSU turned the ball over 13 times, and outrebounded the Volunteers 41-37.
“We were not affected in the least by their press and their rotation of players,” Mulkey said.
Tennessee made its biggest move in the third quarter, leading by as much as four points.
Talaysia Cooper led that charge with 12 third quarter points and finished with 16 points. Ruby Whitehorn led Tennessee with 21 points, shooting 9-of-20 from the field and 1-of-4 from three.
Jewel Spear scored 19 for the Vols, and Zee Spearman added 15 points and six rebounds.
But when Tennessee came alive in the third quarter, Gilbert responded with 15 points of her own.
Once again, LSU was challenged, and once again, LSU earned a major statement win.
Just three days prior, Tennessee upset No. 4 Connecticut 80-76. After a win of that magnitude, there may not have been a team in the country with more momentum than the Volunteers.
But LSU found a way to halt that momentum, and take it into a challenge that it has ahead.
On Sunday, the Tigers will travel to Austin to take on the Texas Longhorns, who are coming off a major win of their own.
The Longhorns took down South Carolina 66-62, giving the Gamecocks their second loss of the season.
Now, the stakes are that much bigger, as LSU has the chance to give Texas its second conference loss of the season, and Texas has a chance to remain the SEC frontrunner.
LSU will tip-off with Texas on Sunday at 2 p.m. from the Moody Center.
