By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
BATON ROUGE – It’s a 1 p.m. tipoff, drawing a post-Sunday church crowd.
You’re coming off a 100-point plus free-for-all Thursday night victory that was a 40-minute street fight.
You’re playing a team that’s lost its last 3 of 4 SEC games.
Motivation, it seems, needs to be manufactured.
Thank goodness that No. 7 LSU that Flau’Jae Johnson keeps receipts.
Johnson, remembering social media yammering from Mississippi State’s Jerkaila Jordan after the Tigers lost 79-77 last season in Starkville, scored 20 points and held Jordan to 9 points in an 81-67 SEC victory Sunday afternoon in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
“It was personal,” said Johnson, after tying her career-high of four blocked shots while limiting Jordan to 2 of 12 field goal shooting. “After we lost last year (to MSU), she (Jordan) went on Twitter talking I was little.
“I was thinking about that since last year. I’m a competitor. I didn’t care if I scored in this game unless I did what I did on defense.”
The Tigers (23-1, 8-1 SEC) opened the game on a 9-0 run. Their largest lead was 18 points at 34-18 with 4:48 left in the second quarter on a Mikaylah Williams’ 3-pointer.
But LSU, despite its Big Three of Johnson, Williams and Aneesah Morrow combining for 60 points and 28 rebounds, never could get a kill-shot rally to bury the Bulldogs (16-7, 3-6).
Although there was never a vibe in the PMAC that LSU was in danger of losing, the Tigers still allowed too many drives to the basket in which no defender provided help after the primary defender usually had beaten an LSU guard off the dribble.
The fact that MSU outrebounded the Tigers 49-48 (matching LSU’s 17 offensive rebounds) and LSU barely outscored the Bulldogs 40-36 in points in the paint (including 16 layups) proved MSU’s sticktoitiveness.
But also MSU’s three leading scorers on the day – Eniya Russell with 13 points and Destiny McPhaul and Quanirah Montague with 10 points each – were reserves was because LSU’s starters erased MSU’s starting lineup.
The Tigers’ starters, featuring the addition of Arkansas transfer Jersey Wolfenbarger replacing Sa’Myah Smith who was serving her mandated one-game NCAA suspension for fighting in a 107-100 win over Oklahoma, outscored MSU’s starters 74-34.
Former Bossier City Parkway High star Williams followed her 37-point clinic vs. Oklahoma by scoring a team-high 22 against the Bulldogs. She hit 4 of 8 3’s, bringing her total in the last two games to 11 of 20.
Morrow had 18 points and 20 rebounds, her 21st double-double of the season and the 95th of her career. She also pulled into a 6th place tie on the NCAA career rebounding charts at 1,570 with former LSU star Sylvia Fowles.
“She never tires,” Tigers’ coach Kim Mulkey said of the 6-1 Morrow. “She’s tough as nails. And when you’re undersized, you have to have a tremendous basketball I.Q. to figure to understand how to guard bigger people and how to outrebound them.”
Wolfenbarger, who started LSU’s first three SEC games and then came off the bench in the last five games, had her best scoring and rebounding performance in a conference game this year. She had 12 points (more than Smith scored this season in an SEC game) and collected 7 rebounds.
“I knew with Sa’Myah out, we cannot get in foul trouble,” Wolfenbarger said. “It was about playing hard and aggressive, but also very disciplined. I had been in a slump, but I think I’m finally finding my rhythm again, finding the ball and getting the feel for the game.”
LSU hits the road for a Thursday 7 p.m. game vs. Missouri before returning home next Sunday at 3 p.m. to face No. 18 Tennessee. The Tigers edged the Lady Vols 89-87 on Jan. 9 in Knoxville on Kailyn Gilbert’s last-second game-winning drive.
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com