LSU and Georgia’s women’s basketball teams met up for the second time this season, this time in the PMAC in front of a sea of pink shirts for the Play 4 Kay game. LSU won the matchup 73-67.
The entire student section and the first 1,000 fans all received pink LSU women’s basketball shirts to wear for tonight’s pink out to match LSU’s special pink uniforms, for a game supporting Breast Cancer Awareness research.
LSU’s fans felt comfortable for a long time during this one (not Kim Mulkey; she was screaming the entire time). Once up by as many as 20 points, the Tigers let the Bulldogs come back and tie the game. From there, the Tigers had to dig deep, and find a way to get their rhythm back. Slowly, but surely, LSU did the job. LSU came down with huge rebounds. They hit their free throws. Players and coaches were hyping up fans from the bench. The fan support has been amazing this season, and the players always point to them giving them confidence.
“We feed off of them, we need them. It would have been a tough win without them. Especially as Georgia came back, [the fans] kept us in it,” said Alexis Morris after the game.
The backcourt led the way for the Tigers on offense as Alexis Morris, Khayla Pointer and Jailin Cherry all came to play, each scoring at least 18 points. The crowd at the PMAC was eating it up. Whether it was a Morris three pointer or a Cherry jumper, the fans were screaming.
“It’s hard to guard us on a ball screen,” Cherry said about the ability of LSU’s guards. “We can get to the paint, we’re able to shoot the mid-range jumper. Not a lot of teams have that, and we have three people that can come off the ball screen and just pull it up.” Pointer and Morris did a great job of getting to the free throw line, shooting a combined 25-30 from the charity stripe.
Autumn Newby and Faustine Aifuwa may not have had a crazy game in terms of scoring buckets, but they did a great job against Georgia’s bigs. Aifuwa may have had two of the biggest plays of the game. One on offense led to a Jailin Cherry jumper to put the Tigers back up by three with a minute remaining, and again, on defense, her box out helped Alexis Morris secure a rebound that led to UGA fouling.
The Bulldogs’ star center Jenna Satiti missed the first matchup earlier this season and was a big talking point as a potential game changer in this one. She was completely neutralized in this game until the very end. She still only had eight points and finished with a plus/minus -17.
It’s hard to find a true MVP in this game, as everyone stepped up at their own points. It was a team effort. LSU will need everyone to contribute, fans included, for these last five games of the season.
“There aren’t any gimmes left. They’re all going to be like this,” Mulkey said after the game.
Everyone is trying to make their case for the tournament, and while LSU is a projected 4-seed and a virtual lock to make it to the postseason, they could still host some games during the tournament if they win out.
The main message to close this season out, according to Coach Mulkey, was: “We can control our own destiny.”
LSU’s next game will be against Texas A&M on Feb. 13 at 2 p.m. in College Station.