Head Coach Kim Mulkey and her Tigers were tested by Mississippi State on the road Feb. 17, but they put their foot on the gas when it mattered most: in the last five minutes of the game. The Tigers outscored State 16-3 to secure a 71-59 win, improving LSU to 22-4 on the year with an 11-3 conference record.
Mulkey called a timeout with 4:50 left in the game and the score tied at 56. It was then when the Tigers came alive and stayed true to themselves. Once they got ahead, they didn’t look back.
“What they did, they did on sheer will to win, sheer talent and just making clutch plays,” Mulkey said following the victory. “It wasn’t anything I drew up, it wasn’t any magical thing that was said on a timeout and you know you have to win some that way sometimes.”
The matchup between the 11^th-ranked Tigers and the Mississippi State Bulldogs was supposed to tip off at 6 p.m. C.T. However, due to severe weather in the Starkville area, the game’s start time was pushed back to 7:30 p.m. C.T. This didn’t affect the Tigers. As long as there was a game to be played, they were going to do everything in their power to win it.
“These seniors lost many games last year that they could’ve won,” Mulkey said. “It’s rewarding for me for them to now win those close games that they lost last year.”
Alexis Morris led the Tigers in their fourth quarter surge. She ended the game with 23 points, and 15 of those came in the fourth quarter. “We weren’t really in sync, we were just pressing to do something of late and I said, ‘let that kid go; she wants to go one on one,” Mulkey said. “She did make some clutch buckets for us right there.”
Khayla Pointer ended the game with 18 points, and 10 of them came in the first quarter. The Morris-Pointer dynamic duo and how they complement each other was on full display tonight; when one leads at the beginning, the other takes over at the end.
Jailin Cherry also scored 10 points and had eight rebounds for the Tigers. Faustine Aifuwa and Autumn Newby each grabbed 12 rebounds.
The elite guard play was also in full affect for Mississippi State. Anastasia Hayes led the Bulldogs with 17 points, JerKaila Jordan scored 12, and Myah Taylor scored 11. Bulldogs center, Charlotte Kohl, was a presence in the paint with eight points and 11 rebounds.
In a game that went back and forth from the start with six lead changes in the first quarter, Pointer kept the Tigers in the game. LSU then found their rhythm with just under four minutes left in the first quarter and went on an 11-0 run to have a 23-16 lead at the end of the first quarter.
After Cherry and Morris helped the Tigers open the second quarter with a 30-17 lead, Mississippi State started to claw their way back. The Bulldogs went on a 9-0 scoring run and cut LSU’s lead to four points at 30-26. They then cut the Tigers’ lead to three as Anastasia Hayes hit a three pointer to make the score 32-29. Hayes gave the Bulldogs the momentum they needed going into halftime, hitting a layup with seconds left in the half, and they went into halftime down three at 34-31.
The Bulldogs kept rolling into the second half. Charlotte Kohl cut LSU’s lead to one right away, and Caterrion Thompson gave the Bulldogs the lead at 37-36 with a jumper. It became a back-and-forth battle once again. LSU’s guards in Pointer and Ryann Payne started to give LSU some separation, but Kohl controlled the paint for Mississippi State and gave the Bulldogs a 49-47 lead at the end of the third quarter.
Both teams traded blows at the start of the fourth quarter, but Mulkey knew she needed to settle her team down in order to have the best shot at winning the game. They made the right adjustments, got their best shooters to the foul line, and were able to separate themselves as the time ticked down. The Tigers went on a 15-0 run until Thompson hit a last minute three for Mississippi State.
When the clock hit triple zeroes, the Tigers secured another hard fought and much needed road victory headed toward the end of the regular season.
LSU returns to Baton Rouge to take on the Florida Gators, a team they had lost to on the road by one point in January.
“Just stay the course, and understand it’s late in the year,” Mulkey said. “You got one more on the road and two at home. Who knows what lies ahead, but I do know we have put ourselves in a position to do some good things here late.”
That matchup will tip-off at 3 p.m. C.T. at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

Gallery • 2 Photos

Chynna McClinton

LSU women’s basketball graduate student guard Khayla Pointer (3) drives down the baseline Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022, during LSU’s 73-67 win against Georgia in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on North Stadium Drive in Baton Rouge, La.