On Sunday afternoon, LSU toppled Auburn 77-44 in a battle of the Tigers.
LSU traveled to Auburn, Alabama looking for a bounce-back win following a disappointing road loss to Texas on Thursday.
LSU made sure to find answers quickly from their defense, holding Auburn to just single-digit points in each of the first half’s periods. By not allowing Auburn to slow the game down too much, LSU walked away with 36 points in the first half.
“I saw what I expected, we aren’t the kind of team that throws a pity party,” head coach Kim Mulkey said. “We get back on our game. We lost our composure against Texas, but we had a good practice yesterday and are pretty good.”
This LSU offense finished the first half 13-for-30 on field goals, compared to Auburn’s 5-for-30. There was no question who was going to end up with the win, but the goal shifted to playing the fundamentals correctly after watching it fall apart in the fourth period on Thursday.
The Auburn defense had no problem being gritty and slowing the game down, holding LSU under 50 points until more than halfway through the third quarter. Still, freshman phenom Zakiyah Johnson stood out among the women on the floor, scoring 16 points, grabbing eight rebounds in her 22 minutes on the court.
Zakiyah Johnson was one of the three top scorers among the women on the team, next to Mikaylah Williams and Flau’Jae Johnson.
In the second half, the game became much faster-paced after Auburn realized that the way to come back was not to slow it down but to beat LSU at its own game.
Coming up short, the faster-paced play had assisted LSU, allowing a more comfortable game than in the first half.
Auburn’s defense started to swarm LSU, allowing them to take advantage of every unguarded ball. Flau’Jae Johnson profited, scoring 10 points and Williams did as well, scoring 12 points and seven rebounds.
“As of today, we are back on our better grind, back on our game, but we are back to the basics, back to running our defense, running our offense,” Williams said.
Unselfish is the word that Mulkey has been emphasizing to her team all season, saying that LSU doesn’t need anyone hogging the ball or trying to get extra time with the ball going down the court.
The ball is constantly being passed around with this team, and that was on full display for LSU. In the second half, the fundamentals came back naturally, with a few bumps along the way, which is something almost all teams go through.
Regular players on the court, like Grace Knox and Amiya Joyner, on the other hand, lacked in complete dominance in court performance that is usually seen, but most of the fundamental parts were on display.
Auburn, trailing by a large margin nearly all game, had to work overtime to score all its points. Despite the large margin of victory, it’s a boost of confidence going into arguably the most important game of the season against South Carolina on Saturday night.
The Tigers will have to be perfect in the face off against the Gamecocks on Saturday night at home. One area LSU needs to clean up is turnovers, giving away 19 turnovers versus Auburn.
LSU’s win allows their focus to shift to hosting the Gamecocks on Saturday. The game tips off at 7:30 p.m.
