Tag: Sylvia Fowles

Angel Reese dominates as LSU women’s basketball advances past Hawaii, will play Michigan in second round

Reese notched her 29th double-double in LSU’s 73-50 win over Hawaii.

[autotag]Angel Reese[/autotag] was her usual unstoppable self on Friday night as the No. 3-seeded LSU women’s basketball team breezed by No. 14-seeded Hawaii with a 73-50 win in the first round of the 2023 NCAA women’s basketball tournament.

Reese — a First Team All-American according to multiple publications —notched her 29th double-double of the season with a game-high 34 points and 15 rebounds, surpassing [autotag]Sylvia Fowles[/autotag]’ single-season school record in the process. With the win, the Tigers advance to face No. 6-seeded Michigan in the second round on Sunday.

This one was never really in doubt for LSU, which took a 13-point lead to the locker room and stretched it in the final two quarters. Reese was the primary contributor for LSU, though [autotag]Flau’Jae Johnson[/autotag] also scored 10 points while adding six rebounds and five assists.

Coach Kim Mulkey has matched last season’s result. Now, she’ll try to exceed it and avoid another second-round loss to a Big Ten squad on Sunday.

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LSU’s Angel Reese earns multiple First Team All-America honors

Reese has been one of the nation’s most dominant players this season.

It’s been a dominant first season in the SEC for Maryland transfer [autotag]Angel Reese[/autotag].

She’s been LSU’s best player — as well as one of the nation’s best players — and she’s adding yet another piece of hardware to a growing collection. On Wednesday, Reese was named a First Team All-America selection by the Associated Press and the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.

Reese is averaging 23.4 points and 15.5 assists this season, both of which lead the SEC. She has 27 doubles in 28 games, tying [autotag]Sylvia Fowles[/autotag]’ regular-season school record, and she also set the conference single-season record with seven SEC Player of the Week selections.

She has five games in 2022-23 with at least 20 points and 20 rebounds, which leads the nation.

Choosing Reese as a First-Teamer was a no-brainer, and she’ll now look to lead LSU — a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament — beyond last year’s second-round exit. The Tigers begin their postseason run against Hawaii on Friday at 4:30 p.m. CT on their home court at the PMAC.

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LSU women’s basketball beats Mississippi State to match program record 27 regular-season wins

The Tigers finished the regular season off in record-setting fashion.

LSU capped off what is now tied for the most prolific regular season in program history on Sunday night, winning its 27th game of the year against Mississippi State to match the 2004-05 team’s win total.

With the 74-59 win in front of a record-setting 15,721-person crowd at the PMAC, LSU finishes the season 27-1 (15-1 SEC) and will have a double bye as the No. 2 seed in the SEC Tournament this week.

Though the Bulldogs managed to keep it close for much of the game, they never led after taking a 6-4 advantage just over two minutes into the game. It wasn’t a great game offensively for LSU, which shot 40.9% from the field and missed all 14 of its three-point attempts.

Mississippi State shot at a higher clip and made four threes in this game, but foul trouble really doomed the Bulldogs in this game. They committed 21 fouls, and LSU was 20 of 27 from the charity stripe. The Tigers dominated on the inside, winning the rebounding battle by 22 and outrebounding MSU 21-3 on the offensive boards, which led to 24 second-chance points.

[autotag]Angel Reese[/autotag] had a 23-point, 26-rebound double-double — her 27th of the season, which matches the school record set by [autotag]Sylvia Fowles[/autotag]. In her final game at the PMAC on senior night, [autotag]Alexis Morris[/autotag] scored 23 points, which doesn’t include this called-off three-quarter court shot that she didn’t get off in time.

It counts in our hearts, though.

Forward [autotag]LaDazhia Williams[/autotag] also made a major impact in her final home game, scoring 16 points.

The Tigers will open their SEC Tournament run in Greenville, South Carolina, on Friday in the quarterfinals when they face the winner of No. 10-seeded Auburn and No. 7-seeded Georgia at 5 p.m. CT.

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How to watch No. 5 LSU women’s basketball vs. Mississippi State in regular season finale

The Tigers will look to match their program record with their 27th regular-season win on Sunday.

The No. 5 LSU women’s basketball team will look to match the best regular-season record in program history as Kim Mulkey’s squad goes for its 27th win on Sunday evening against the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

It will be senior day for the Tigers (26-1, 14-1 SEC), and they will honor [autotag]Jasmine Carson[/autotag], [autotag]Alexis Morris[/autotag], [autotag]Emily Ward[/autotag] and [autotag]LaDazhia Williams[/autotag] at halftime of the game against MSU (20-8, 9-6 SEC).

“Senior day is coming up Saturday at five o’clock against maybe the hottest team in the SEC right now,” Mulkey said in a release. “They are really, really playing good to get off that bubble and get to the NCAA Tournament.”

LSU has already locked up the No. 2 seed at the SEC Tournament, though a South Carolina loss on Sunday would allow the team to grab a share of the conference title with a win. The Bulldogs, meanwhile, have won five of their last six and sit in a logjam in a tie for fifth in the league. A win would go a long way for both its conference seeding and NCAA Tournament hopes.

[autotag]Angel Reese[/autotag], meanwhile, will aim to match [autotag]Sylvia Fowles[/autotag]’ school record 27 double-doubles against the Bulldogs on Sunday. Here’s everything you need to know to follow this game, which tips off at 5 p.m. CT on the SEC Network.

Vikings announce special guest to sound Gjallarhorn at Saturday’s game

The star winger will sound the Gjallarhorn

The Minnesota Vikings are set to host the New York Giants in a Christmas Eve showdown on Saturday. Since the Vikings are at home, they’ll continue a tradition of sounding the Gjallarhorn, something that they’ve started since the opening of US Bank Stadium in 2016.

This Saturday, Minnesota Wild star left wing Kirill Kaprizov will get the honor of sounding the horn. Kaprizov is the first Wild player since center Erik Haula to sound the Gjallarhorn.

Other notable people that have sounded the Gjallarhorn this season:

Sylvia Fowles – Former Minnesota Lynx 
Cris Carter- Former Vikings Wide Receiver
Lonnie Warwick – Former Vikings Linebacker
Charlie Huizinga – Child battling acute Leukemia
Jared Allen– Former Vikings Defensive End
Paul Nakasone- United Stated Four-Star General
Sunisa Lee- Women’s Gymnastic Olympic Champion 
Jairus Wright- Former Vikings Wide Receiver 

Sylvia Fowles received a heartfelt standing ovation to end her career and basketball fans were so emotional

What an emotional ending for an all-time great.

Sylvia Fowles will forever be remembered as a basketball icon. If you ever decide to recite Fowles’ career achievements, you might want to take a few extra breaths.

A WNBA MVP. Two WNBA titles. Two WNBA Finals MVPs. (Takes a breath) Eight All-Star selections. Four Defensive Player of the Year awards. (Takes another breath) The only player in WNBA history to record at least 4,000 rebounds (!).

Suffice to say, Fowles created a lot of memories over her legendary 15-year career. Her final game, with the Lynx taking on the Sun (-6) Sunday, was bound to be emotional. And when the all-time great center stepped off the court for the final time in the closing moments, the hometown Connecticut crowd honored Fowles with a touching standing ovation:

Oh wow. Look at that emotional outpouring from Fowles’ teammates. Just listen to the roar of that crowd that does not wain whatsoever. A fitting tribute to one of the best ever as she hangs her sneakers up. Someone, please stop cutting onions!

Sylvia Fowles’ WNBA career is coming to an end, but it’s time to celebrate her new beginning

Bravo, Sylvia Fowles. Bravo.

Welcome to Layup Lines, our daily NBA newsletter where we’ll prep you for a tip-off of tonight’s action, from what to watch to bets to make. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every afternoon

What’s good, family. It’s Sykes, once again, here to bring you another edition of Layup Lines. Today, we’re celebrating Sylvia Fowles.

The Minnesota Lynx superstar told us she is retiring from the WNBA at the end of this season after dominant 15 years in the league. That was back in July and, man, look at how the time flies. We’re already here.

She might be playing in her last home game on Friday with the Lynx. All of the profiles about her brilliance and all the tweets about her kindness and genuineness are all rightfully bubbling to the surface. Fowles deserves the flowers she’s finally getting and so much more.

It’s hard for anyone to ever say a league MVP has somehow flown under the radar throughout her career, but it absolutely feels like Fowles has. She’s always been one of the WNBA’s best players, from her time early on in Chicago as a 2nd year All-Star to all her trips to the WNBA Finals alongside Maya Moore in Minnesota.

Fowles always comes to work, dominates, and goes on about her business. That’s why she’s the WNBA’s all-time leading rebounder. It’s why she’s an 8-time All-Star, a 2-time Finals MVP, and a 4-time Gold Medal winning Olympian. You get it — she’s great.

But you won’t hear a peep about it from her — especially not about basketball.

Basketball isn’t really her main thing. Fowles recently told ESPN’s Kevin Van Valkenburg “My life is not about basketball. It’s just something I do.” She loves the game and all it’s given her, but it doesn’t define her. She means that.

She’s already got her post-retirement life lined up. She’s a mortician. She knits things like baskets and beanie hats for fun — she even made some as gifts to her teammates and coaches for when she finally leaves. She’s a plant mom who loves drinking tea. She’s a genuinely kind human being that nobody would dare utter a bad word about. That’s Sylvia Fowles and this is her new beginning.

I don’t know how much more of Big Syl we’re going to get. It could be a little, but it might be a lot more if the Lynx hold on to their playoff slot at 7.

Regardless, it’s been an absolute pleasure to watch her through her career. We’ll miss her. But she’s about to have the time of her life.

Cheers to that.

The Tip-Off

Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.

Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

The Miami Heat are going to have a pretty weird setup in their arena once LeBron James retires. Obviously, Bill Russell’s number 6 has been retired across the league.

But…there was a pretty great 6 playing in that arena last decade. LeBron James might be the best Miami Heat player literally ever. And they’re going to retire his jersey someday. Which also means that there will be two different number 6’s in the building. My buddy Bryan Kalbrosky wrote about it today.

“So before they have a ceremony to honor LeBron, they must first retire No. 6 for Russell and hang his jersey in the rafters. Then, they will do the same for James.

This means that more likely than not, there will eventually be two different No. 6 jerseys featured at FTX Arena.”

That’s going to be fun.

One to Watch

(All odds via Tipico.)

Seattle Storm (-1.5, +102) vs. Minnesota Lynx (+1.5), O/U 163.5, 9 PM ET

(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Not only is this a battle between two legends in Fowles and Sue Bird, but it’s also a battle for playoff positioning. The Lynx have a lot to lose with them in a 4-way tie for the 7th seed. And it’s also Big Syl’s last home game — at least for the regular season, anyway. So I’m taking Minny +1.5.

Shootaround

— Here’s a look at the last players in the NBA to ever wear No. 6. 

— Cole Huff has the 30 best over/under bets for next season already. My guy is on it.

—It doesn’t feel likely that the 76ers are a realistic spot for Kevin Durant, but Philly fans can dream.

— Why do the Thunder still have so many picks? Sheesh.

That’s a wrap, family! Have a great weekend. Let us know what you think about this new flow, too. Like it? Love it? Hate it? Sound off.

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