Murray State led LSU women’s basketball by nine points at halftime. The Tigers faced adversity for the first time this year.
The No. 7 team in the country rose to the occasion, holding the Racers to single-digit scoring in each of the last two quarters, sealing a 14-point win.
LSU understood the importance of recovering from its first-half woes to stay unblemished on the young season.
Flau’Jae Johnson, who scored 10 of her game-high 25 points in the fourth frame, pointed to “self-inflicted” mistakes for the poor showing.
“We didn’t get a lot of paint points,” Johnson said. “We have got to do better with feeding the post.”
LSU head coach [autotag]Kim Mulkey[/autotag] also pointed to the lack of post-play as a reason for the struggle. Murray State led 26-20 with points in the paint but the gap was wider in the first half, according to Mulkey.
“You can’t play this game the way we want to play without post-production,” Mulkey said. “Post-production doesn’t have to be the leading scorer, just give us something.”
LSU out-rebounded the Racers 42-35, thanks in part to Aneesah Morrow’s 14 rebounds.
Mulkey called Morrow a “warrior” for her efforts, particularly on defense. The Tigers made adjustments on the Racers’ forwards and Morrow was up for the challenge.
“She didn’t shoot it particularly well but she never gave up on the defensive end of the floor,” Mulkey said. “She found other ways to contribute.”
The fourth-year coach pointed to bench scoring in the first quarter as the reason why the Tigers held a slim lead, saying she needs to reevaluate the rotation between starters and bench players.
“You usually go with kids that have been in your system that you have the most confidence in,” Mulkey said. “The truth of the matter is at the end of the first quarter, who got us the lead? It wasn’t those kids that have been in the system, so I’m going to look at me first.”
The Tigers stand at 4-0 in the 2024-25 season and took a team-wide approach to remain undefeated with a win on Friday,
“We came together and told ourselves, ‘We’ve got to stick together,'” LSU point guard Shayeann Day-Wilson said. “We are facing adversity, we know what we are messing up on and let’s do better for the third quarter.”
