By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
NASHVILLE – A week ago, No. 5-ranked and unbeaten LSU was frothing at the mouth to start SEC play.
The Tigers sprinted through 14 non-conference sacrificial lambs, averaging 108 points. They were eager for tougher challenges.
Until the last four days when LSU did something no Kim Mulkey-coached team has done in her 26-year Naismith Hall of Fame coaching career.
Which is starting conference play with two straight losses.
After guard Tonie Morgan hit a game-winning 3-pointer with 0.5 seconds left in No. 11 one-loss Kentucky’s 80-78 win at LSU last Thursday in the SEC opener for both teams, guard Mikayla Blakes scored 16 of her game-high 34 points in the final 5:33 to erase a seven-point deficit for a 65-61 Vanderbilt victory over the Tigers here Sunday afternoon.
Mulkey’s postgame assessment after both losses was the same. Her team lacks toughness.
“Toughness is you either have it, or you don’t, and we’re not tough enough,” Mulkey said after Sunday’s loss dropped LSU to 14-2 overall and an unthinkable 0-2 in the SEC. “You’ve got mental toughness, and you’ve got physical toughness. It’s just who you are. It’s your demeanor. You’ve got to want it more than the opposing player and the opposing team.
“You’re not tough enough to make a play when we need it, you’re not tough enough to get that rebound when we need it. It’s not just one or two players. It’s the whole (LSU) locker room at different times.”
In the Kentucky loss, the taller and more aggressive Wildcats’ front line, led by 6-5 towers Teonni Key and Clara Strack, combined for 19 rebounds as the Wildcats dominated LSU 45-29 on the boards.
“We didn’t rebound,” said LSU junior guard and former Bossier City Parkway star Mikaylah Williams, who scored 26 points vs. UK and hit three free throws with 18.5 seconds left for a 78-77 lead. “We have to go back to the drawing board, grit our teeth, put our big girl clothes on, and go rebound.”
Mulkey switched her starting lineup vs. Vanderbilt, hoping for an injection of hustle. She gave South Carolina transfer guard MiLaysia Fulwiley her first LSU start over Jada Richard and benched Notre Dame transfer center Kate Koval in favor of freshman Zakiya Johnson.
As usual, the high-energy Fulwiley provided good (13 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists) and bad (a team-high 5 turnovers, 5 missed layups). Richard also had 13 points, often playing with Fulwiley in the backcourt.
Johnson had 10 points and 8 rebounds, including 5 offensive boards, one more than LSU as a team had in the UK loss.
Koval added 9 points and 10 rebounds (6 offensive) after having just 2 rebounds and 2 points against the Wildcats.
The determined Tigers outrebounded the Commodores 48-28, but LSU self-destructed in a myriad of ways.
First, the Tigers had a season-high 22 turnovers, including four miscues in the first five possessions of the game.
The Tigers, who missed 12 of 28 layups vs. Kentucky, blew 12 of 22 layups against the Commodores.
In LSU’s two SEC losses, it has been outscored by 10 points from the 3-point line (18-8) and by 6 from the free throw line (27 of 48 to 21 of 28.
At crunch time in a 7-0 Vanderbilt run in 48 seconds for a 64-58 lead with 1:17 left to play, the Commodores scored five points off a 3-pointer and a layup after offensive rebounds off missed free throws.
“We’re not talented enough to beat people as we have been,” Mulkey said. “Possessions matter when you allow your guy to run in there and fly in there and get another board.”
Williams, despite an uncharacteristic four turnovers vs. Vanderbilt, has been LSU’s rock.
Playing like someone who’s a three-year starter, she’s averaging 19.5 points, 8 rebounds, 5.5 assists while shooting 50 percent from the field (14 of 28), 62.5 percent in 3-pointers, and 83.3 percent (5 of 6 from the free throw line.
However, senior Flau’Jae Johnson, a four-year starter and the last player remaining from LSU’s 2023 national championship team, has been invisible in SEC play.
After scoring 15 points and grabbing just 1 rebound in almost 38 minutes vs. Kentucky, she was scoreless with 3 rebounds in 19 minutes vs. Vanderbilt.
She supposedly tweaked an ankle against the Commodores, but Mulkey said afterward she didn’t know the extent of the injury.
LSU’s schedule doesn’t get much easier. After Kentucky improved to 14-1 and Vandy to 15-0 vs. the Tigers, Mulkey’s squad is at Georgia (15-1) on Thursday night, followed by a Saturday home game vs. No. 2 Texas (17-0) and a Jan. 18 date at No. 8 Oklahoma (14-1).
“These first five games are as tough a bunch of games in a row that I think I’ve ever coached in,” Mulkey said. “We know what we face, and we’ve got to keep working to get better.”
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com