By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
BATON ROUGE – It would have been human nature for No. 10 LSU to peek ahead to Thursday’s much-anticipated showdown here with unbeaten No. 1 South Carolina in a battle of the last two NCAA women’s basketball national champions.
ESPN’s full GameDay crew is already booked live on site for a two-hour pregame show. A sellout crowd is expected in a matchup of the last two defending national champions.
So, Arkansas head coach Mike Neighbors wished the Razorbacks’ Sunday visit could have been a “trap game” for the Tigers.
“We were hoping they (LSU) were looking forward to it (the South Carolina game),” Neighbors said. “It was pretty clear from their start they weren’t falling for that.”
The Tigers opened the game on an 18-0 run, Bossier City freshman guard Mikaylah Williams scored 10 of her game-high 21 points in the first quarter and LSU roared to a 99-68 SEC victory.
A Pete Maravich Assembly Center crowd of 12,873 – the largest of the season – watched LSU trot out of its full arsenal of weapons on both ends of the court.
All five starters scored in double figures, including Louisville transfer guard Hailey Van Lith who matched her season-high 20 points and All-American Angel Reese who had 16 points (including a 3-pointer) and 17 rebounds. Aneesah Morrow had 14 points and 8 rebounds and Flau’jae Johnson added 13.
“It was a game that we pretty much were special on both ends of the floor,” LSU head coach Kim Mulkey said. “We were just playing very confident, very free, pushing the ball up the floor. We were doing a lot of active things. The crowd got into it. It was just one of those games that was entertainment.”
It was LSU’s second straight victory after it had a 16-game win streak snapped in an 87-62 loss at unranked Auburn on Jan. 14.
“After the Auburn game, we said that we were never going to get outplayed again,” said Williams. “Since then, we haven’t been outplayed. We’ve done a great job of being focused.”
Williams, a two-time Louisiana Gatorade Player of the Year for Parkway High School as well as the Morgan Wooten National Player of the Year in last year’s state championship season, has rarely played like a freshman in her 20-game college career so far.
She put on a clinic of smart, efficient well-rounded basketball vs. the Razorbacks by hitting 9 of 14 shots (including 3 of 5-pointers) and grabbing 9 rebounds. Her decision-making in handling the ball in pick-and-roll situations is beautifully nuanced.
“She’s a three-dimensional player,” Mulkey said of Williams. “She can take you off the dribble and get layups. She can stop and shoot the mid-range and she can shoot the 3-ball. She has a strong body and she can get to anywhere she needs to on the floor.”
Neighbors, who said he’s watched Williams play since she was in the eighth grade, concurs.
“You can yell all you want about trying to keep Mikayla Williams from getting to her spot, and you can’t do it,” Neighbors said. “She gets to her spots as good as any kid since (former UConn two-time National Player of the Year and former WNBA MVP) Maya Moore.
“She’s just continued to get better and better. I came out (before Sunday’s game) to watch her warm up and it was very methodical. It’s very businesslike and then she carried it over the game. I’m hoping the WNBA opens up (the draft) for freshmen immediately.”
Reese, who missed three layups in the game’s first five minutes, settled in and hit 6 of 10 shots. The surprise, something she hadn’t shown much this season, was her swishing two mid-range 16-foot jumpers and then nailing her first 3-pointer of the year.
“I work on my outside shot because I know people are going play (defense) like that and back off me,” Reese said. “So, I have to be able to take advantage of that, be confident about the work I put in and knock down the shots.”
Every LSU starter but Morrow hit a 3. The Tigers’ 8-of-20 3-point performance helped offset Arkansas’ frenetic 12 of 47 bombing from beyond the arc.
The Hogs closed the first quarter hitting six of its last eight shots, including four 3-pointers, to cut LSU’s lead to 25-16 heading to the second period.
The Tigers drilled their first seven of eight shots in the second quarter and took a 55-28 lead into the break.
Arkansas didn’t go down without a fight. Four of their five third-quarter baskets were 3-pointers, including a pair by Samara Spencer. She scored 10 points of a game-total 20 points to help Arkansas whittle LSU’s 27-point halftime lead twice to 22 points, the second time on her 3-pointer with 3:01 left.
A couple of Williams’ stop-and-pop jumpers restarted LSU’s engines. The Tigers closed the period with a 10-2 burst that sent LSU to the fourth quarter with an 80-50 lead.
In the end, Mulkey liked the continued positive response from her team of scoring wins over Alabama and Arkansas since the Auburn loss.
“We were in that locker room after the Auburn loss a long time,” Mulkey said. “I made them talk. I said, `You tell me what you could have done better. You tell me what you’re gonna do better.
“They have to take ownership, I can lead you as a coach. But at the end of the day, I can’t pass, I can’t shoot it and I can’t dribble it for you.
“Part of that needed to be corrected after Auburn started with leadership and it needed to be all of them. They’re all very capable of leading because they’re good, great players. Don’t wait for somebody else. Let’s all do it collectively.”
The Tigers will take a 33-game regular season homecourt winning streak into Thursday’s game vs. South Carolina (17-0, 5-0 SEC), which won 99-64 at Texas A&M on Sunday. The Gamecocks were the last team to win in the regular season at LSU, scoring a 66-60 victory on Jan. 6, 2022.
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com