The LSU women’s basketball team won its first round March Madness match up against Jackson State Saturday, surrounded by one of the best crowds and atmospheres it has seen all season. The call is now out to LSU’s students to come out and support this team in its last game in the PMAC of most of the players’ careers.
The Tigers will be facing the Ohio State Buckeyes Monday with a trip to the Sweet 16 on the line. The game will tip off at 7 p.m.  and will be free to attend for students. The team has urged students to show up all season, but especially to this game against Ohio State.
After the Jackson State game, Mulkey and guards Khayla Pointer and Jailin Cherry gave some input on how the fans impacted the game.
“The fans were unbelievable. They stood, they cheered, everybody in this arena got a good basketball game to watch,” said Mulkey.
During a timeout, Cherry went to the crowd and got attendees to stand up. The players were asking for the fans’ help all night.
“The fans are like our literal sixth man. They’re like our extra teammate” said Cherry. “Every time we got down, even when we were down by 10, they were still with us.”
“It’s Louisiana, we have the best fans in the world” said star guard Khayla Pointer. “We believe that. They’ve played a key part in our success all year. They were huge for us today and they helped us in. We feed off of their energy. Louisiana fans are crazy, so I’m happy we are here and home and have that home court advantage.” 
Among fans attending the game included the Balcony Bengals, a group of students who helped revitalize the Student Section of men’s and women’s basketball at LSU.
“When you go to the games, you realize there’s a very small group of extremely loyal students that go to everything, ourselves included, and over the course of this year we’ve become friends with several of them and have gotten to see that group start to grow,” said Balcony Bengals member and LSU junior Dean Compton. 
“One of the special things about the passion of the student section growing is that our home court advantage in the PMAC grows as well. It’s a special thing to see the crowd get into games more, which is something we try to encourage more throughout the entirety of games.”
There has been incredible growth this season in student section participation, as students are all still getting used to going to large events again, Compton mentioned how fun that has been to see.
“The crowds at basketball games, especially women’s basketball, are electric when the crowd is as invested as it has been this season,” said Compton. “Hopefully LSU continues on its upward trend in passion in sports and makes the games even more exciting and brings more success to all our incredible sports teams.”
Not all fans have been able to show support from the stands, including Landon Newsom, who makes sure to tune in on his TV.
“I haven’t been able to make it to the PMAC yet this year. but I really want to soon. The crowd’s energy comes across on the TV and really makes you want to be there,” said Newsom. 
“It’s crazy seeing what Kim Mulkey has done there in her first season, I would never have expected LSU women’s basketball to draw a crowd like this one in the first season under her.”
“She is almost as fun to watch as the product on the court. You can hear the mics picking up her yelling. Seeing her jump up and down on the side. It would be fun to see her do all of that in person and how she acts without the camera showing.”
For most of the LSU team, this is the last time that they will step foot in the PMAC as players.  As fun and loud as the crowds have been all season, there are still plenty of seats open for fans to take as the women’s team battles for its own spot in the Sweet 16.