Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis once said, “just win, baby.” The LSU women’s basketball team has taken that phrase to heart as they beat No. 25 Tennessee 75-65 in the PMAC on Thursday night. The win is LSU’s fourth straight and with it, they improve to 18-5 overall and take sole possession of third place in the SEC at 8-3.
“We are just trying to take it one game at a time,” said junior guard Khayla Pointer. “We really wanted that third place spot and wanted to do it home. We need to stay in the moment and not look too far ahead.”
The only thing Pointer was looking ahead to Thursday night was when she was going to score her next bucket. She finished with 24 points while also adding a team high 10 rebounds and six assists. It was also her third career double-double. Two other tigers also scored in double figures to help the team secure a victory. Junior forward Awa Trasi has a career-high 22 points, 15 of those coming from behind the arc. Freshman guard Tiara Young also added 10 points in the win.
Pointer’s play earned praise from not only her team, but also from Tennessee head coach Kellie Harper.
“She’s been playing great,” Harper said. “We knew that going in, that she was going to be aggressive. We just couldn’t guard her. She got to the basket, she got a lot of easy looks and finished it.”
The win marks LSU’s fifth win over a team ranked in the top-25 this season. The Lady Tigers also have not lost at home since SEC play started and overall are 11-1 in the PMAC this year. LSU head coach Nikki Fargas believes this success is due to the team’s mentality they have adopted as the season has progressed.
“We talked about the Mamba mentality and I feel like this group is starting to understand what that mentality needs to look like,” said Fargas. “We compete on every possession. We are going to do all the little things like getting loose balls and taking charges. We also have a relentless work ethic.”
LSU will have to keep that mentality down the stretch as they still play at No. 1 South Carolina on Thursday Feb. 20 and at No. 23 Arkansas on Sunday March 1.
In the meantime, LSU’s next game will be at Auburn on Sunday Feb. 16 at 4 p.m. on the SEC Network.