By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
BATON ROUGE – An LSU school-record tying victory margin of 89 points on Thursday – a 115-26 beatdown of Southeastern – did not move Tigers’ women’s head coach Kim Mulkey’s needle.
She knows her team pounded an inferior nonconference opponent. And more of those foes are on the way before LSU opens SEC play at home vs. Kentucky on New Year’s Day.
So, in the meantime, she’s intently eyeballing her personnel.
“I tell them (her players) in games like this that you don’t look at the score,” Mulkey said. “I’m not looking at the score. I’m looking at you. I’m watching what you’re doing with the people while you’re on the floor. I’m watching you play.”
Honestly, there wasn’t much for Mulkey to nitpick other than Notre Dame transfer center Katie Koval missing a couple of free throws (“She keeps telling me that’s not how she normally is,” Mulkey said) or freshman guard Bella Hines allowing SLU’s Mari Dangerfiekd to hit a 3-point shot at the final buzzer (“You don’t ever want to end the game with the other team scoring,” Mulkey said).
LSU (2-0) stayed in attack mode. With Southeastern shooting just 19.2 percent from the field (10 of 52) and committing 29 turnovers, the Tigers eagerly turned the game into a track meet.
With 29 of its 50 field goals being layups, LSU torched the Lions in fast break points 42-0, points off turnovers 42-9, second chance points 22-5, points in the paint 74-8, and bench points 58-14.
LSU, which shot 68.4 percent (13 of 19) in each of the first three quarters, finished at 67.6 percent (50 of 74).
Even with Mulkey repeatedly clearing her bench, the Tigers established leads of 30-4 at the end of the first quarter, 61-6 at halftime and 91-13 at the end of the third quarter.
In the first three periods, LSU held the Lions scoreless for five streaks lasting more than one minute, including a stretch of 10:37.
Senior guard Flau’Jae Johnson led the Tigers’ parade of scorers with 17 points. Freshmen ZaKiya Johnson, Hines, and Grace Knox scored 16, 14 and 11 points respectively. Koval added 16 points and a team-high 9 rebounds.
Johnson, the last remaining player from LSU’s 2023 national championship team on which she was a starter as the SEC’s Freshman of the Year, likes the chemistry and unselfishness of her final Tigers’ squad.
“We really like each other, everybody’s pulling for everybody,” Johnson said. “We’re just eager to learn, and we like challenging each other. We’re able to lead the freshmen. They really listen. They want to learn.”
The five freshmen signees – ZaKiya Johnson (no relation to Flau’jae), Hines, Grace Knox, Divine Bourrage, and Meghan Yamevich – combined for 53 points on 74.2 percent field goal accuracy (23 of 31) and grabbed 18 rebounds.
“They all have an aura about them,” Johnson said. “They all are dynamic in their own way. They can affect games in many ways. I wish I could have spent four years with this group.”
Johnson, a Savannah, Georgia native, returns to her home state Saturday at 1 p.m. CT. The Tigers face Georgia Southern (1-1) in Statesboro, 55 miles northwest of Savannah.
“They sold out of tickets quickly, so it’s going to be lit,” Johnson said. “My grandpa is gonna be able to come to the game. He’s never seen me play (live) in college, so I’m excited.”
For a 45-minute drive west on Interstate 12 from Hammond to absorb probably the largest defeat margin in the history of its program, Southeastern (1-1) collected a $20,000 guarantee per the LSU game contract. They’ll likely earn a bigger payday when they play at Arkansas next Thursday.
Contact Ron at ronhiggins@gmail.com