The fifth-ranked LSU women’s basketball team began the new year by hosting the Kentucky Wildcats in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. The Tigers opened SEC play on Thursday and allowed a last-second three to Kentucky’s Tonie Morgan to lose 80-78. This was the first loss of the season for the Bayou Bengals.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
LSU started the game strong, going on a 14-2 run through the opening four minutes. Kate Koval scored the first basket with a putback layup, and Mikaylah Williams knocked down back-to-back threes. One was at the top of the key, and the other was heavily contested from the left wing, with under a second left on the shot clock. Williams scored 10 points during the opening stretch.
Kentucky punched back through the middle-to-late part of the first quarter, going on a 16-3 run to take its first lead of the game. Jade Richard had the lone basket for the Tigers, while three Wildcats scored multiple times during the run. Asia Boone was the sharp shooter with a pair of shots from behind the arc, and Clara Strack made an impact on both ends of the floor.
At the end of the first quarter, Richard hit a running hookshot from the elbow to give LSU the 23-22 lead.
Flau’Jae Johnson struggled to find a rhythm with her scoring, going 0/3 in the opening period. The next quarter was completely different, hitting her next three shots, one of which was when she fought for a deflected, loose ball, and accelerated past everyone for the coast-to-coast layup.
Strack picked up three fouls in a four-and-a-half minute span through the latter part of the second quarter, forcing Kentucky coach Kenny Brooks to sub her out for Kaelyn Carroll. Strack missed the final two minutes of the first half, but that didn’t spark the Tigers to go on a run, as they scored just three points compared to the Wildcats’ six points over the final 1:42. At halftime, the game was tied at 41.
Coming out of the locker room, Johnson continued to impress on the offensive end. The senior guard scored the team’s first three buckets to open the third quarter, hitting a midrange jumper and a couple of layups before Williams hit a 17-footer for the Tigers.
Kim Mulkey made multiple substitutions, with Amiya Joyner and ZaKiyah Johnson coming onto the floor at the 6:21 mark of the quarter. That sparked LSU to go on a 12-3 run as Joyner scored twice and Williams hit her third triple to help give the team the eight-point advantage. Kentucky had a late-quarter surge, but Richard ended the quarter on a high note with another buzzer-beater, this time a layup to put the Bayou Bengals up 65-60 with 10 minutes to go.
The fourth quarter was back-and-forth as both teams traded buckets with one another through the first five minutes. LSU couldn’t extend its lead any further than six, and Kentucky couldn’t get any closer than three. That all changed in the closing minutes.
The Wildcats went on an 8-0 to take the lead late. Teonni Key had a putback layup, and then Strack and Tonie Morgan helped tie the game at 75 with a pair of free throws. On the following possession for Kentucky, Strack hit a turnaround fadeaway with 1:18 to go to give her team the lead.
Johnson blocked a Jordan Obi layup to set up the Tigers for a chance to tie or take the lead in the closing seconds. Williams was fouled by Strack and made all three from the charity stripe, putting LSU back up by one with 18 seconds left. Morgan, on the final possession, had Joyner switched onto her and knocked down the three-pointer with under a second remaining. The Tigers couldn’t get a shot off and suffered their first blemish on the season, losing 80-78.
BIG NUMBER: 2,541
The last time Kentucky women’s basketball defeated LSU in the PMAC was 2,541 days ago, back on January 17th, 2019. In that game, the Wildcats won 64-60. Going into Thursday’s contest, the Tigers won the previous games in Baton Rouge.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Tonie Morgan
Morgan was out of the game for a single minute as she recovered from an eye injury that occurred at the end of the third quarter. Outside of that, Morgan went off for a 24-point, 12-assist double-double as she shot 7/12 from the free throw line and 7/10 from the floor, including the game-winning three, giving LSU its first loss of the season in an 80-78 game.
UP NEXT: The LSU women’s basketball team will return on Sunday, January 4th, when they travel to take on the Vanderbilt Commodores. Tipoff from the Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville, Tennessee, is set for 4:00, and the action can be heard on Mustang 107.1.