With a disgruntled face and lying on the floor, Aneesah Morrow was in pain, holding her left ankle.
LSU was already missing their leading scorer. It was another pivotal blow for the Tigers.
Early in the third quarter, Morrow went up for a layup and immediately collapsed to the floor, holding her ankle.
At first, it didn’t look like much as there was no real turn to her left ankle, but Morrow had been battling a left foot injury before this game and even wore a boot entering the arena.
Morrow entered this game coming off a dominating performance where she had 36 points and 14 rebounds while shooting 15-for-21 (71.4%) from the field.
Morrow stepped up for a team that was dealing with a lot on and off the court. As Johnson continues to nurse her shin injury, head coach Kim Mulkey has been dealing with pain of her own as an unexpected death took place before the game against Florida.
Morrow did not return to the game, and the Tigers were down their two leading scorers for the game against the Longhorns.
LSU would end up losing the semifinal game to Texas, 56-49, in an offensive standstill.
As for offense, there wasn’t much for the whole game. The two teams shot below 35% from the field, with Texas shooting 31.6% and LSU shooting 33.9%
Similar to the first half, the second half also provided a lackluster performance on offense, but things would take a turn for the worse for LSU.
Entering the SEC tournament, the Tigers would be without guard Flau’Jae Johnson and were limited on the court.
Mikaylah Williams started to get going on offense in the third quarter, but she would soon pick up her fourth foul in the third quarter and have to sit for most of the second half.
Only trailing by six to start the fourth quarter, LSU would need someone else to step up for the injured Morrow and Williams, who dealt with foul trouble.
The Tigers battled all game, and despite missing key players, they were still in the game. LSU scored 15 points in the fourth quarter but couldn’t find ways to stop Texas down the stretch.
Neither team played their best basketball, but Madison Booker showed us why she deserved the SEC Player of the Year.
Booker nearly outscored LSU by herself in the first half, scoring 18 points, shooting 7-for-9 (77.8%) from the field and 3-for-5 (60%) from three.
Booker finished the game, leading both teams in scoring with 25 points, and added six rebounds to the stat sheet.
She set the tone immediately by using her length along with her tremendous shot-making ability to shoot over the smaller defenders that LSU sent at her.
The last time these two played, Booker shot 3-for-17 (17.6%) from the field and only scored 16 points. In the game that took place three weeks ago, it was Johnson who got the assignment of guarding Booker.
The length of Johnson bothered and impacted Booker offensively, but with Johnson being out and LSU resorting to smaller players to guard Booker, she used her size as an advantage to easily score over whoever was guarding her.
The Tigers gave themselves a chance despite being undermanned by forcing 18 turnovers and holding Texas under 60 points.
Eight different players scored for LSU, but there wasn’t enough firepower.
Morrow and Williams were the only players for LSU to score at least 10 points, but Morrow scored all 10 in the first half, and Williams shot 5-for-13 (38.5%) and led the team in turnovers.
Williams was one of the players who needed to step up for the Tigers with Johnson being out before this game, but as Morrow also went out to injury, she didn’t have the performance people were hoping for.
LSU lost by seven, but if the team had gone perfect from the charity stripe, the Tigers could’ve come out victorious.
There is no clock running and no one contesting a shot; it’s a free throw because it’s a free opportunity to put points on the board.
As a team, LSU shot 9-for-17 (52.9%) from the free-throw line, missing eight. Tigers rank sixth in the SEC for free throw shooting at 73.8% on the season, but tonight, the shots were not on its side.
LSU will await its seed, opponent and region on Sunday, March 16, during Selection Sunday.
