BATON ROUGE — The LSU women’s basketball team celebrated Senior Night inside a raucous Pete Maravich Assembly Center Thursday evening with a hard-fought victory.
No. 6 LSU took down Tennessee 89-73 in the regular season finale inside the PMAC.
With the win, LSU also secured a Top 4 seed in the Southeastern Conference Women’s Tournament in Greenville, South Carolina. Kim Mulkey’s team secured a double-bye and won’t play until the quarterfinals next Friday.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
LSU took the early lead with back-to-back buckets by Zakiyah Johnson and Flau’jae Johnson. The Tigers would extend their lead over the Lady Vols to four points a few times before Tennessee rallied to end the first.
Tennessee’s Mia Pauldo drained a three-pointer that sparked a 14-3 run in the final four minutes of the opening quarter. LSU did get a big shot at the buzzer as former Lafayette Christian Academy star Jada Richard hit a three-pointer to cut the lead down to four.
The Lady Vols pushed the lead back up to six early in the second, but the Tigers rallied. Milaysia Fulwiley hit a pair of three pointers that tied the game 24-24.
LSU would take the lead on a pair of free throws by Richard and then added a layup and free throw by Grace Knox. With 6:32 left in the second, the Tigers held a 29-24 lead.
The two teams went back and forth in the third as LSU extended its lead to eight points after a Mikayla Williams jumper with 5:25 left in the period. Tennessee’s Jaida Civil responded with a three, but then Fulwiley answered for the Tigers with a layup.
With five minutes left in the third, LSU held a 57-50 lead, and the Tigers kept their foot on the gas. In the final minute, Johnson made a fast break layup, and with two seconds left, Knox hit a pair of free throws to make it 70-59 at the end of the third.
Tennessee was only able to trim the lead down to 10 points as LSU kept them at bay for the rest of the fourth quarter to seal the win.
BIG NUMBER: 1,500
Mikayla Williams reached a milestone in Thursday’s game as the Tiger star reached the 1,500 career points. Williams did so in the first half of Thursday’s game.
PLAYERS OF THE GAME: MILAYSIA FULWILEY & MIKAYLA WILLIAMS
Fulwiley scored 18 points on 7-of-18 shooting with a pair of three pointers, while Williams scored 20 points on 10-of-16 shooting and pulled down 10 rebounds.
UP NEXT: LSU (25-4, 11-4) will wrap up the regular season when it travels to Starkville to take on Mississippi State on Sunday. Tip is set for 3 p.m. and can be heard on Mustang 107.1 FM — Acadiana’s Classic Country.