BATON ROUGE — These types of games like LSU women’s basketball had with McNeese State inside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Tuesday night, for coaches they’re all about trying different things and seeing what might can work later.
Reserves such as forward Amani Bartlett, guards Angelica Velez and Janae Kent got extended time playing time as well as Kim Mulkey had her run some new wrinkles on defense against an opponent the team overmatches.
No. 7 LSU had no trouble disposing of the Cowgirls, 133-44, breaking the program’s scoring record in a single game.
The Tigers had 10 steals by halftime and held McNeese scoreless for 12 minutes in the first half, including not allowing a point in the second quarter to go on a 47-0 run that rolled over into the third.
Angel Reese, Flau’jae Johnson lead LSU women’s basketball defensive effort
McNeese had twice as many turnovers as points, 24 to 12, by halftime and LSU’s active hands on the defense were the culprit.
Angel Reese led the team with six steals while Flau’jae Johnson had five and MiKaylah Williams added four. The Tigers scored 52 points off 36 turnovers.
Freshman center Aalyah Del Rosario led LSU with 27 points off the bench. Williams led the starting group with 26 points. Aneesah Morrow continued to shine, putting up another double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds while Reese had 21 points and 10 boards. Johnson scored 16.
Kim Mulkey has defense pick up full court at times. It worked.
It’s not often that Mulkey has her team pick up teams full court, and with this team’s overall inexperience at several positions, it was a bit surprising to see the Tigers pressure the ball on the inbound.
The strategy worked. The game was tied at 10, and the switch caused the Cowgirls all sorts of problems. McNeese struggled to get the ball up the floor, turned the ball over eight times the last four minutes of the opening period.
After giving up 10 in the opening five minutes, LSU allowed two points the rest of the first half and 34 points the rest of the game.
Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers and Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers and Cajuns coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU/UL athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at [email protected].
