LSU was tenths of a second away from their night ending early from a buzzer beater by Florida’s Kiki Smith. She drove left, left a high teardrop off the glass, and it looked like Florida was getting out of here with a stab-to-the-heart win.
The good news? Smith did not get the shot off in time. A shot-clock violation took the ball out of her hands and gave it to the Tigers with 0.7 seconds remaining.
The bad news? Awa Trasi’s midrange jumper just missed for the win in regulation. Then LSU got outscored 15-9 in overtime, as their game-long offensive struggles were amplified in clutch minutes.
The Tigers fell to the Gators 73-66 on Thursday night. Khayla Pointer led LSU with a personal season-high of 27 points on 10-21 shooting. She was supplemented by a strong performance by Faustine Aifuwa, who recorded her 17^th career double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
LSU’s offense this year has not been great, averaging just 59.3 PPG. They recorded 42 of their 66 points in the paint tonight. A 20-point fourth quarter was nearly enough to win, but they ultimately fell just short due to an abysmal five-point second quarter. The Tigers shot just 15.4% on 2-13 shooting in that quarter. The facilitation was lacking for LSU, who only had six assists all night, all from Pointer and Tiara Young.
“Florida did a very good job of really going to their go-tos, but different players also stepped up for them,” head coach Nikki Fargas said on the loss. “Pretty much everybody that scored for them had a basket or more, and we couldn’t generate enough offense in the second quarter. It’s hard to play teams in our league, where you’re only going five points in a quarter. And that’s going to make for a long night.”
LSU’s scrappy defense nearly won them the game, despite a FG% of just 39.1%. Active hands and quick rotations forced 18 Florida turnovers, which helped the Tigers get necessary stops to stay in the game. Unfortunately, that second quarter would come back to haunt them when it mattered.
“We have to be ready to play strong quarters the entire game,” Fargas said. “We’ve got to be more diligent in our efforts to score the basketball. You know, we’re probably playing about 30 minutes of good basketball, and we’ve been played at least one quarter where we’ve struggled to score.”
LSU resumes play with a big away game against No. 1 South Carolina. The Tigers lost a close game to the Gamecocks on January 24^th by a score of 69-65 in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Tip-off will be at 11:00 AM.
“We’re coming into this period where it’s the last four games of the SEC conference play,” Fargas said. “And you’re still in a great position. I don’t want them to feel the pressure. I just want them to go out there and enjoy playing the game and have a lot of fun plays and energy plays, and I didn’t feel like we had that all the time tonight.”