By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
BATON ROUGE – After the game’s first 3½ minutes Monday night, LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey had seen enough.
Florida trailed by a point. Gators’ guard Liv McGill, the SEC’s third leading scorer, had scored all of her team’s points on three layups.
Mulkey yanked starting sophomore point guard Jada Richard and subbed junior transfer MiLaysia Fulwiley.
“I took her out because her transition defense was not really good,” Mulkey said of Richard. “She didn’t pout, she didn’t sit over there and feel sorry for herself. She went right back in and figured it out. That’s what competitors do.”
Richard scored a team-high 20 points and teamed with Fulwiley to hold McGill to 14 points as the No. 6 Tigers subdued the pesky Gators 89-60 here Monday night.
A crowd of 9,783, including a full student section, braved the frigid weather to watch the Tigers (19-2, 5-2 overall) win their fifth straight game after opening league play with consecutive losses to Kentucky and Vanderbilt. Florida fell to 13-9, 1-6 SEC.
Richard’s rapid development from the start of league play until the present has been a key reason why LSU has regained its mojo after suffering the stunning defeats at the hands of the Wildcats and Commodores.
During LSU’s 14-0 non-conference run, Richard averaged 7 points, shot 40 percent from the field and had three games in which she didn’t hit a field goal.
In SEC play, she’s averaging 13 points, is shooting 45 percent from the field and has had her two best college scoring outings in her last three games.
“I always knew I could get to this stage,” said Richard, an Opelousas native and a LSWA Miss Basketball who played just 6.8 minutes per game last season as a Tiger freshman after leading Louisiana Christian Academy to four state championships. “Last year, I wanted to play more to be on the floor more, but I kind of just used practice as my games. It was just a matter of me being humble, putting my head down and going to work.”
Additionally, the emergence of Richard as a third defensive stopper for the Tigers (joining Fulwiley and Flau’jae Johnson) and a third primary ballhandler (alongside Fulwiley and Mikaylah Williams) has added extreme versatility to a deep and talented team.
Richard, as well as Fulwiley, has taken much of the scoring pressure off returning starters Johnson and Williams. The veterans are scoring less but expanding other parts of their games, especially rebounding.
“I’ve enjoyed watching, especially Flau’jae and Mikaylah, make their teammates better,” Mulkey said. “They could shoot it 20 or 25 times every game, but that doesn’t make us better. They enjoy it now because they see the production.”
Former Bossier City Parkway star Williams is developing into one of college basketball’s best overall players. During the Tigers’ current SEC winning streak, she’s averaging 10.2 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4.8 assists.
She can change the course of the game without scoring, like late in the second quarter against Florida.
The Tigers were slogging through a cold shooting first half, trailing 27-26, when Williams ignited a 10-2 run in the final 3:43 of the second quarter for a 36-29 lead at the break.
She had a pair of assists, including a precision bounce pass inside between two defenders to Amiya Joiner for a layup. And she finished the half by dribbling out of a double team and driving for a pull-up bank shot jumper.
“Our best chance for success is if the shots (attempted) are sort of spread out a little bit between several players,” Mulkey said. “That’s part of our identity. Who are you going to stop?”
It doesn’t mean, though, that the Tigers don’t have players capable of dominating in stretches.
For instance, Richard scored 12 of LSU’s 27 third-quarter points when the Tigers extended their seven-point halftime lead to 18 (63-45) by the end of the third quarter. She hit 3 of 4 field goals (including 2 of 2 3-pointers) and 4 of 4 free throws.
Fulwiley handled LSU’’s fourth-quarter offense, scoring 11 of the Tigers’ 26 points, grabbing 2 rebounds and blocking 2 shots, including chasing down McGill for a rejection of her fastbreak layup.
The win over Florida was the start of LSU’s SEC three-game homestand. The Tigers play Arkansas on Thursday at 7 p.m. and Alabama at 11 a.m. on Sunday.
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com
Continue your article here…