Tag: Aneesah Morrow

Instant Analysis: LSU women’s basketball has no issue taking down Vanderbilt on the road

The Tigers have now won two games in a row and will return home to face Alabama on Sunday.

The No. 13 LSU women’s basketball team kept its momentum going from a big win on Sunday, taking down a potential NCAA Tournament team on the road with an 85-62 win over Vanderbilt in Nashville.

With the win, the Tigers move to 20-4 on the season and 7-3 in SEC play.

LSU started the game with the momentum, jumping out to an early 16-2 lead in the first quarter. The Commodores hit just 2 of 16 shots overall in that frame, and the Tigers held a 22-5 lead after 10 minutes.

They shot below 40% in the second quarter but still managed to expand their lead in large part thanks to some dominant play on the boards. LSU won the first-half rebounding battle 30-19, and that resulted in 19 second chance points — equivalent to the 39-20 advantage it took to the locker room.

Vanderbilt managed to flip the momentum a bit in the third quarter. LSU had some offensive issues, missing eight shots in a row, and the Commodores managed to cut the lead down to just 12. However, the Tigers stretched it back out to an 18-point lead by the end of the quarter.

LSU hit 10 of 16 shots in the final quarter as it closed out the game. [autotag]Flau’Jae Johnson[/autotag] led the team in scoring with 17 points, and [autotag]Angel Reese[/autotag] (15 points, 16 rebounds) and [autotag]Aneesah Morrow[/autotag] (13 points, 10 rebounds) each recorded double-doubles.

The Tigers ultimately won the rebounding battle 57-35, leading to a final second-chance points difference of 32 to Vanderbilt’s 11.

After a rough stretch, LSU is getting back on track and will look to extend its win streak to three when it returns home to face Alabama on Sunday.

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Instant Analysis: LSU women’s basketball smacks Florida to end skid

The Tigers got back on track with a decisive home win over the Gators on Sunday.

It’s been a rough recent stretch for the LSU women’s basketball team, but it took out its frustrations on a struggling Florida Gators team on Sunday afternoon. The Tigers took control early in the game and never looked back as they cruised to a 106-66 win, their largest in SEC play to this point, to move to 19-4 and 6-3 in league play.

LSU had a slow start and fell into an early 6-2 deficit, but that was about the highlight of the game for the Gators. The Tigers responded with a 14-0 run to seize control of the game, and they led 24-11 after the first.

[autotag]Aneesah Morrow[/autotag] came close to reaching a double-double in just the first 10 minutes, scoring seven points with nine rebounds.

LSU widened the gap even further with a 10-0 run early in the second quarter and ultimately took a commanding 54-28 lead by halftime. The snowball effect continued into the third as LSU stretched a 37-point lead heading into the fourth, its largest of the game to that point.

In the fourth, the Tigers ultimately stretched a game-high 45-point lead before taking their foot off the gas. Still, they crossed the 100-point threshold for the seventh time this season and first time in conference play.

[autotag]Hailey Van Lith[/autotag] and [autotag]Mikaylah Williams[/autotag] led the team with 21 points each, and Morrow ultimately finished with an impressive 18-point, 20-rebound line. [autotag]Angel Reese[/autotag] scored 14, while [autotag]Aalyah Del Rosario[/autotag] and [autotag]Flau’Jae Johnson[/autotag] also scored in double figures with 11 and 10 points, respectively.

The Tigers dominated on the boards, winning the rebounding battle 59-34. They scored 42 points in the paint and played strong defense, holding Florida to 35.3% shooting with 20 turnovers.

It was the kind of result LSU needed, and coach Kim Mulkey’s team will hope this level of play continues when the team returns to the court on Thursday for what will be a tougher test against Vanderbilt on the road.

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LSU women’s basketball’s Angel Reese, Aneesah Morrow named to Wooden Award late-season watchlist

The Wooden Award goes to the most outstanding player in both men’s and women’s college basketball.

A pair of LSU women’s basketball stars find themselves on the late-season watch list for the Wooden Award, which is given annually to the most outstanding player in both men’s and women’s college basketball.

[autotag]Angel Reese[/autotag] and [autotag]Aneesah Morrow[/autotag] grace the list, making LSU one of four programs with multiple players on the watch list. Morrow and Reese rank in the top 10 nationally in double-doubles with 13 and 13, respectively.

Morrow has been an impactful transfer addition this season, ranking in the top 10 in the SEC in scoring, rebounds, field-goal percentage and steals. Reese, meanwhile, leads the nation in 20-point double-doubles despite missing four games earlier in the season.

The Tigers have hit some turbulence in SEC play, dropping three of their last five, but they’ll look to get back on track as they hope to defend their national title come tournament time.

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Instant Analysis: No. 9 LSU women’s basketball stumbles again in road loss to Mississippi State

LSU has now dropped two in a row and three of its last five.

LSU’s season began with hopes of possible perfection, but instead, the Tigers women’s basketball team is searching for answers after a 77-73 road loss to Mississippi State on Monday night.

Coach Kim Mulkey’s team falls to 18-4 (5-3 SEC). It has now dropped two games in a row and three of its last five.

The first quarter was very streaky. LSU jumped out to an 8-2 lead, but Mississippi State answered with an 11-0 run to take the early momentum and lead at home. The Bulldogs hit 7 of 10 shots to begin the game.

They led by as much as eight in the frame, but the Tigers cut that deficit to two by the end of the quarter. The script flipped in the second quarter as 10 first-half MSU turnovers helped LSU retake control.

LSU had its own issues with sloppiness, giving up five turnovers of its own in just the second quarter, but it managed to take a 40-35 lead to the locker room after shooting 50% in the first half. [autotag]Angel Reese[/autotag], [autotag]Flau’Jae Johnson[/autotag] and [autotag]Aneesah Morrow[/autotag] each scored 10 points in the half, with Reese nearly recording a double-double in 20 minutes with nine rebounds.

Mississippi State came out in the third quarter playing much stronger, however. It outscored LSU 28-17 and led by six entering the fourth after the Tigers finished the quarter missing their last 10 shots.

LSU outscored the Bulldogs in the fourth quarter, but it never retook the lead. A late three-pointer from [autotag]Mikaylah Williams[/autotag] cut it to three with 15 seconds to play, but the Bulldogs made their free throws on the other end to deliver the dagger.

It was a solid game for LSU offensively as Reese finished with a 20-point, 18-rebound double-double while Johnson scored 18, but it struggled on the defensive end once again.

Mississippi State shot above 50% for the game with Jerkaila Jordan (24 points) and Darrione Rogers (19) causing particular problems for the LSU backcourt. Both teams were fairly sloppy, with MSU turning it over 22 times to the Tigers’ 21.

The Tigers will look to end the skid on Sunday when they return home to host Florida.

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Tigers stars evaluate how much Angel Reese was missed in fourth quarter of loss to South Carolina

The Tigers sorely missed Angel Reese down the stretch as they couldn’t close it out against South Carolina.

LSU very nearly pulled off a colossal upset at the PMAC on Thursday night against No. 1 South Carolina, but after leading at the end of the first three quarters, the Tigers couldn’t hang on in the fourth as star forward [autotag]Angel Reese[/autotag] missed most of the period after fouling out.

Reese finished the game with 15 points and eight rebounds, but her absence made a major impact, specifically on the defensive end as LSU needed some key stops in the final minutes and wasn’t able to get them.

After the game, LSU stars sounded off on what her absence meant to the team at the end.

“I would say on the boards,” guard [autotag]Aneesah Morrow[/autotag] said, per On3’s Thomas Goldkamp. “Defensively on the boards, just the presence in the inside. Having the experience and her being a senior, it’s a lot.”

“I’m going to just piggy-back off that. Experience,” guard [autotag]Flau’Jae Johnson[/autotag] said. “That was a big hit for us going into the end. What did we have, four minutes left? That’s too much time to not have Angel Reese on the floor. So yeah, the experience. The experience, then we had turnovers. That’s what you get.”

Even South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley addressed Reese’s impact during her postgame press conference, according to On3’s Justin Rudolph.

“Angel, she’s a talent,” Staley said. “She’s aggressive, poised, she’s very unselfish. Like she would give up lay up to kick out to the three. She’s mean, physical; she’s somebody that you want to play with because you know she’s gonna play to the very end. She’s gonna give it her all. And that’s what you lose if you’re LSU, and she’s out of the game for the last four minutes of the game.

“I thought (Aalyah) Del Rosario did a great job, she held her own, (and) she’s getting better. But when you lose Angel, you lose a big part of what they do because she touches the ball and she makes the right decisions.”

Reese and the Tigers can’t take too long to dwell on the result as they’ll be back in action with a tough road game against a 16-5 Mississippi State team on Monday night.

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Five takeaways from LSU women’s basketball’s loss to No. 1 South Carolina

The Tigers came out on the losing end of Thursday’s heavyweight fight.

Trying to snap a 14-game losing streak to South Carolina, LSU came up just short on Thursday night in front of a packed PMAC crowd.

It was a game that featured the two leading national title favorites according to the oddsmakers. This was a heavyweight fight, and it played out like one too.

The final was 76-70 with South Carolina coming up with some key buckets in the final two minutes.

All 10 players that started the game scored double-digit points, with LSU’s [autotag]Aneesah Morrow[/autotag] notching a game-high of 16. For South Carolina, it was Chloe Kitts leading the way with 14.

Here are five takeaways from LSU’s close loss.

Instant Analysis: LSU women’s basketball falls short in upset bid against No. 1 South Carolina

The Tigers led for nearly 33 minutes against the top team in the nation, but they couldn’t close things out.

With College GameDay in attendance and a national television audience tuning in, LSU’s women’s basketball team looked primed for an upset against the No. 1-ranked, undefeated South Carolina Gamecocks.

The Tigers led for nearly 33 minutes of the game, but they couldn’t close it out as they fell 76-70. With the loss, coach Kim Mulkey’s team falls to 17-3 and 4-2 in SEC play.

Both teams had a good deal of offensive success early on, but LSU seized the early momentum thanks to some slightly out-of-character three-point shooting. It led by as much as 11 in the first quarter, and the success continued into the second.

The Tigers stretched their lead back out to 11 with 1:22 to play in the half, but South Carolina managed to cut it to five before the break, in large part thanks to a three-pointer at the buzzer.

Still, LSU led 41-36 as [autotag]Angel Reese[/autotag] (11 points) and [autotag]Aneesah Morrow[/autotag] (10) scored in double figures in the half, while [autotag]Flau’Jae Johnson[/autotag] was not far behind with nine of her own.

In the third quarter, LSU shot 58.7% to South Carolina’s 40%, but it was still outscored by one point as the Gamecocks cut the deficit to just four entering the final 10 minutes.

The fourth quarter, however, was a turning point. South Carolina outscored the Tigers by 10 points, and while the final seven minutes featured four ties as the game went back and forth, a layup from Raven Johnson with 22 seconds to go to give the Gamecocks a five-point lead proved to be the dagger.

Morrow finished with a team-high 16 points and 10 rebounds, Reese ultimately fouled out with 15 points, while [autotag]Hailey Van Lith[/autotag] (13), [autotag]Mikaylah Williams[/autotag] (12) and Johnson (10) also scored in double figures.

The Tigers were out-shot and out-rebounded by slight margins in the loss.

LSU took the best team in the nation down to the wire, and while it’s an ultimately frustrating result, it should bode well for LSU as it aims to defend last year’s national title come tournament time.

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PHOTOS: No. 10 LSU women’s basketball rolls against Arkansas

The Tigers have recaptured some momentum since the loss to Auburn, which will be needed with No. 1 South Carolina coming to town on Thursday night.

The Tigers’ winning streak extended back to two games on Sunday with a 99-68 home win over Arkansas.

LSU controlled the game from the opening tip, turning in a prolific offensive performance as the team shot nearly 50% for the game with two players, [autotag]Mikaylah Williams[/autotag] and [autotag]Hailey Van Lith[/autotag], scoring 20+. [autotag]Angel Reese[/autotag], [autotag]Flau’Jae Johnson[/autotag] and [autotag]Aneesah Morrow[/autotag] all also scored in double figures, with Reese recording a double-double.

The Tigers have recaptured some momentum since the loss to Auburn, which will be needed with No. 1 South Carolina coming to town on Thursday night. In the meantime, here are the photos from Sunday’s win.

Instant Analysis: LSU women’s basketball gets back on track in win over Alabama

The Tigers bounced back from their first SEC loss on Thursday night.

LSU entered Thursday night’s game against Alabama licking its wounds after suffering its first SEC loss its last time out, but coach Kim Mulkey’s women’s basketball team bounced back with a 78-58 win.

The first half was tight. The Crimson Tide held slim one-point leads at the end of the first and second quarters. But yet another big third frame from the Tigers, in which they outscored Alabama 26-10, propelled them to a win.

[autotag]Angel Reese[/autotag] and [autotag]Aneesah Morrow[/autotag] led the way with 20-point double-doubles as Reese finished with 17 rebounds while Morrow had 11. [autotag]Mikaylah Williams[/autotag] (14 points) and [autotag]Flau’Jae Johnson[/autotag] (10) also scored in double figures.

It was a strong defensive performance for the Tigers, which held Alabama under 30% shooting and forced 19 turnovers. They also won the rebounding battle by a 53-37 margin.

LSU moves to 17-2 on the year and is now 4-1 in SEC play. It will be in action again on Sunday as it hosts Arkansas.

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Instant Analysis: No. 7 LSU women’s basketball stunned on the road against Auburn

The Tigers suffered their first loss in SEC play on Sunday afternoon.

LSU women’s basketball’s nation-high 16-game winning streak came to an end in Auburn, Alabama, on Sunday afternoon. Coach Kim Mulkey’s team fell 67-62 to Auburn, falling to 16-2 on the season and suffering its first loss in SEC play after a 3-0 start.

Despite starting SEC play with an 0-3 record, Auburn gave LSU all it could handle from the jump. It led by eight after the first quarter, though it relinquished that lead before halftime.

LSU still led by one entering the fourth quarter, but it scored just 10 points in the final frame as it shot an abysmal 2 of 11. Still, [autotag]Angel Reese[/autotag] had a shot down two in the final seconds, but a turnover sealed the Tigers’ fate.

They shot just 41.8% from the field in the game and didn’t hit a single three. LSU relied heavily on free throws, of which it made 16 of 25, but that still wasn’t enough.

Reese (24 points, 11 rebounds) and [autotag]Aneesah Morrow[/autotag] (12 points, 15 rebounds) both recorded double-doubles, but Flau’Jae Johnson was the only other player to score in double figures with 12 points.

LSU suffered its first SEC loss of the year despite winning the rebounding and turnover battles.

Now, the Tigers will only have a couple of days to lick their wounds before they return to the court to take on Alabama in Tuscaloosa on Thursday night.

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