The LSU women’s basketball team was undefeated through three games in SEC play and 18-0 overall. Head coach Kim Mulkey and her Tiger squad returned home to the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Monday to host the Vanderbilt Commodores. This game was back-and-forth throughout with neither team taking a significant lead. LSU would hold on late with the 83-77 win, their 19th victory of the season.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
It took a minute for the first two points to be scored but we were off to the races after Vanderbilt’s Mikayla Blakes made a layup. The Commodores even took a 15-10 lead midway through the opening quarter with Iyana Moore scoring twice from three-point range. LSU’s first make was Mikaylah Williams hitting a three at the 8:21 mark of the first. The Tigers relentlessly scored after the bucket by the sophomore.
Kim Mulkey’s team drew plenty of fouls on Vanderbilt and took eight shots from the free-throw line but only made four through the first 10 minutes. That theme was consistent throughout Monday night’s contest for the Tigers.
LSU went on a 10-2 run in the back half of the first quarter in a two-and-a-half-minute stretch. Williams scored twice then stole the basketball from Blakes and found Flau’Jae Johnson for the transition layup. Khamil Pierre’s layup evened things out and it was all tied up at 21 at the end of the first period.
The Tigers began the second with an 8-2 run, making four more free throws while Sa’Myah Smith and Johnson scored from midrange. During that run, Vanderbilt went over five minutes without scoring a bucket as LSU built up their largest lead to that point. Moore ended the scoring drought by driving into the paint with under five-and-a-half minutes to go in the second quarter.
Moore continued to be the number-one-scoring option for the Commodores as she tied the game at 33 with her third three-pointer in the first half. Aneesah Morrow and Johnson scored in the closing minutes but a pair of free throws from Moore and Blakes sent the game into the locker rooms knotted up at 37.
The Commodores jumped out to a 44-40 advantage early on in the third quarter before the Tigers went on a 10-0 run to reclaim a six-point lead. Morrow hit back-to-back shots and then Williams began to heat up, scoring three times with under six minutes to play in the period.
Vandy battled back once again, cutting it to a one-point game late in the third with Blakes, Moore, and Pierre combined to put up 13 points. Williams continued to take over for LSU as she hit a deep two at the top of the key in an iso situation with the clock at under a minute to play. The Tigers were up 58-57 heading into the fourth.
The Tigers went down again early in the final period as Jordyn Oliver scored on the opening possession and Pierre scored twice to take a one-point lead. Johnson banked in a shot clock-beating three-pointer and hit a midrange jumper to give LSU the lead before Shayeann Day-Wilson scored to make it a four-point difference at the halfway point of the period.
Pierre’s and-one bucket and Oliver’s layup cut it to one but Johnson scored on consecutive possessions to go back up by five with under two minutes to go. Morrow also had a couple of clutch buckets late, scoring both from midrange, then was wide open in the paint on an inbound pass that put the Tigers up 81-75 at the 40-second mark of the fourth.
Williams attempted her first pair of free throws and knocked down both with 25 seconds remaining. Vanderbilt wouldn’t score again and LSU secured the 83-77 victory, improving their record to 19-0 and 4-0 in SEC play.
BIG NUMBER: 6
Monday night’s contest between LSU and Vanderbilt never got out of hand and was close until the very end. The largest overall lead was six, in favor of LSU while Vandy’s largest lead was five.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Aneesah Morrow
Aneesah Morrow had another double-double performance, finishing with 23 points on 10-19 shooting, and secured 15 rebounds. This was her ninth consecutive double-double and 17th of the season as LSU remained undefeated with the 83-77 win over Vanderbilt.
UP NEXT: The LSU Tigers’ women’s basketball team will travel to Gainsville to take on the Florida Gators. Tipoff in the Stephen C. O’Connell Center is set for noon on Sunday, January 19th and the action can be heard on Mustang 107.1.
