The Tigers came very close to knocking off the top team in the nation on Thursday night.
Hosting the undefeated, No. 1-ranked South Carolina Gamecocks at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, LSU led for almost 33 minutes of the game and after each of the first three quarters, but [autotag]Angel Reese[/autotag] fouled out early in the fourth quarter as the Tigers couldn’t quite hang on in a 76-70 loss that dropped them to 17-3 on the year and 4-2 in SEC play.
“I’m not into moral victories. Never have been,” Coach [autotag]Kim Mulkey[/autotag] said after the game, according to On3. “We had opportunities to win this game and we didn’t. I’m sure I’ll toss and turn all night. Don’t know if I’ll sleep much but that’s a personality deal.”
Mulkey went on to address specifically what went wrong in the fourth quarter, in which LSU was outscored 24-14.
“We gotta rebound the ball,” Mulkey said. “At the beginning of the quarter, (South Carolina was) behind and they played with a little bit more energy. We didn’t. So I called the timeout. Angel (Reese) gets her third (foul) on something that she shouldn’t have because of something her teammate didn’t do.
“You live, you learn, you grow — Look, we’re competing. That’s a darn good team over there. They’ve been in these situations. My team hasn’t, and I just thinking if we can compete a little bit here, you never know what might happen.”
Still, Mulkey said she was proud of the atmosphere and the way her team competed and expects it will be a learning experience come tournament time.
“I’m extremely proud of LSU, the atmosphere,” Mulkey said. “What we created here, what we have created here in three years now. It doesn’t get any better than what you experienced tonight.
“We’ll learn from it, just like we did when we went to South Carolina last year. We’ll learn from it. This is just one game. It’s just one game.”
The Tigers will return to the court on Monday night when they hit the road to take on Mississippi State.
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