LSU women’s basketball escaped a first-half scare to beat Murray State 74-60 in a second half comeback.
In a game where most people thought it was going to business per usual, LSU had its hands full with the Racers in the first half.
The Tigers led the first quarter by nine thanks to their defense forcing nine turnovers on the Racers, but after a 19-3 run by the Racers, the Tigers found themselves trailing by double digits at one point.
LSU struggled tremendously to put the ball in the hoop, shooting 23% from the field and 14% from three in the second quarter.
The lack of movement on the offensive end contributed to this poor shooting percentage. There wasn’t much cutting, swinging the ball, screening or anything else. It forced LSU into some bad shots, and the Tigers found themselves struggling.
LSU did find itself with good looks but just couldn’t get them to fall.
Outside of Flau’Jae Johnson and Mikaylah Williams, who both contributed 13 points, the Tigers didn’t have another scorer with more than four points in the first half. The Tigers couldn’t find that third option.
Meanwhile, it was the opposite for Murray State as they shot 66% from 3-point range and 61% from the field in the second quarter.
Racers guard Ava Learn caught fire in the second quarter, scoring 16 points and leading them to a nine-point lead at halftime, 46-37. Her teammate Halli Poock also played a role in the Racers’ first half lead, scoring 10 points herself.
Murray State took advantage of LSU’s offensive struggles and outscored the Tigers 32-12 in the second quarter.
As for the second half, things flipped for both teams.
“The message is to talk to them about post touches,” head coach Kim Mulkey said. “Talk to them about post production, talk to them about changing your defense on ball screens. Use that as a time to tell them we’re going to hard hedge now instead of all your basket as a post.”
The red hot Racers who were shooting over 60% from both the field and the 3-point line struggled in the third quarter, only shooting 17% from the field and 0-8 from 3-point range.
The Tigers’ defense contributed to the Racers’ third quarter slump, as the adjustments and aggressiveness on the defensive side of the ball held Murray State to only eight points in the quarter.
Just like Murray State, LSU took advantage of the Racers’ poor shooting and outscored them 16-8 in the third quarter. LSU used its size and scored 12 points in the paint after struggling to make shots outside.
Five Tigers players scored in the third quarter, and the team only trailed by one point heading into the fourth quarter.
It was crunch time for LSU.
The Tigers finally regained the lead after an Aneesah Morrow layup, making the score 55-54.
Once again, LSU’s defense helped break this game open. The Tigers forced five turnovers in the fourth quarter and held the Racers to six points on 10% shooting from the field.
The Tigers scored 21 points in the fourth quarter while Johnson scored 10 of those herself and finished the game with 25 points. Once again, Johnson led the team in scoring and stepped up when her team needed her the most.
“I just had to try to do whatever I could. (Assistant coach Bob Starkey)told me, they needed my energy,” Johnson said. I just try to make stuff happen on defense or offense.”
Mikaylah Williams finished with 15 points as their second-leading scorer, and Aneesah Morrow added 10 points and 14 rebounds to the stat sheet.
Mulkey highlighted Morrow because although she wasn’t the tallest player on the floor, she led both teams in rebounds.
“I thought Morrow was a warrior for us tonight,“ Mulkey said.“She didn’t shoot it particularly well, but she never gave up on the defensive end of the floor. When we changed and went to a hedge with the post in the second half, she was up there doing things, just playing hard.”
LSU moves to 4-0 and will play Troy at home on Monday at 7 p.m.