By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
AUSTIN, Texas – Kim Mulkey knows all too well there have been no secrets when her Baylor and LSU women’s basketball teams have played Texas in her 26 seasons as a head coach.
So, the manner in which the 5th-ranked Tigers lost 77-64 to the No. 4 Longhorns here on Thursday night wasn’t a surprise.
“They’re going to full court press for 40 minutes, it’s not going to go away, and you just got to take care of the ball and execute,” Mulkey said after her third loss to Texas in four games in the last two seasons since the Longhorns joined the SEC. “They just were good, hungry and very effective. They did what they do. They play physical.”
The Tigers (21-3 overall, 7-3 SEC), who had a seven-game win streak snapped, wilted in the fourth quarter against Texas (22-2, 7-2 SEC), which won its 39th straight home game.
That’s par for the course when LSU faces the Longhorns, even in the Tigers’ 70-65 win in Baton Rouge on Jan. 11. Texas has outscored LSU 83-55 in the final period of losses last season in Austin (65-59) and in the SEC tourney semifinal (56-49), this season in the Tigers’ home win and in Thursday’s loss which was the worst defeat margin this year for LSU.
The Tigers led 17-13 after the opening quarter, trailed for the first time all season at halftime 40-36, and were still down by four points at 57-53 entering the fourth quarter.
Though Texas and LSU shot 33.3 percent from the field in the final period, the Tigers missed their first six shots. They held without a field goal for just more than eight minutes, committed six of their game-total 19 turnovers, and were outscored 20-11.
Madison Booker and Aailyah Crump led the Longhorns with 18 and 16 points respectively, but the catalyst for UT’s win was senior point guard Rori Harmon.
Harmon, who was benched by Texas head coach Vic Schaefer in the fourth quarter of the Longhorns’ January loss in Baton Rouge, had 11 points, 5 assists and 6 steals in their revenge win, including four steals in the fourth quarter.
“I couldn’t let that happen again,” Harmon said. “I had an assignment, and I took that assignment real personal.”
Schaefer called the game “an absolute war, a heavyweight title fight, body blow for body blow.”
“I’m looking at that fourth quarter when we’re holding people to 11 points,” Schaefer said, “especially a team like that averaging 97 points. Man, you’re playing your guts out. That’s a helluva team we beat.”
Former Bossier City Parkway star Mikaylah Williams led LSU with 20 points, but the Tigers’ backcourt players as a group had a lousy game.
Flau’jae Johnson, Jada Richard and MiLaysia Fulwiley shot a collective 8 of 33 from the field and had 11 turnovers. Williams also had five turnovers.
“Sixteen turnovers by our main guards were not very good,” Mulkey said. “They lost their composure a little bit. It’s the timing of the turnovers, it’s the timing of the bad shots.”
LSU travels to Auburn (13-11, 2-8 SEC) on Sunday at 1 p.m. before hosting league leader and 3rd ranked South Carolina (23-2, 9-1 SEC) next Saturday at 7:30 in an ABC nationally televised game.
“This league is just brutal,” Mulkey said. “You have to have a short-term memory, flush it, learn from it, and get ready for the next opponent. We’ve got six (regular season games) left. Let’s see how many of these six that we can win, and then get ready for the conference tournament.”
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com
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