By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
OXFORD, Miss. – When you’re losing by 10 with 6:38 left in the game and you need points in a hurry, the strategy is simple.
Get the ball to your fastest players and unleash the hounds.
LSU’s relay team of MiLaysia Fulwiley, Flau’jae Johnson and Jada Richard scored 22 of the 7th-ranked Tigers’ 24 fourth-quarter points in a 78-70 SEC comeback victory over No. 11 Ole Miss here Thursday night.
“We were very tough,” said Fulwiley, the 5-10 South Carolina junior transfer who scored a career-high 26 points and had 7 rebounds and 3 steals in 24 minutes off the bench. “We relentlessly competed. We just had each other backs. We were determined.”
The Tigers (23-4 overall, 9-4 SEC) closed the game on a 19-1 run as Ole Miss (21-7, 8-5) went 0 for 17 from the field in the final period.
“God blessed this child with speed,” said LSU head coach Kim Mulkey, who shared the postgame media interview room dais with Fulwiley. “I wouldn’t want to be on that floor with her, because when she takes off, you’d better put it in high gear. She’s just so quick, and she makes everybody else play quicker.”
The Rebels’ largest home crowd of the season – 7,424 – was stunned by LSU’s comeback. It was an extremely hostile environment, fueled by the fact that it was the first Oxford appearance for a Tigers’ athletic team since former Ole Miss head football coach Lane Kiffin was hired by LSU in early December.
The Ole Miss faithful turned up the noise in the second quarter when the Rebels flipped a 26-21 first-quarter deficit into a 43-37 halftime lead.
LSU lost momentum from a 22-12 lead in the opening period when Johnson exited with 3:45 left. She sprained her ankle after scoring 9 of her game-total 18 points.
She re-entered the contest in the second quarter, played 10 seconds, was whistled for her second foul, and went to the bench.
Without Johnson, LSU’s offense was stagnant and had no flow. The Tigers had seven turnovers in their 15 second-quarter possessions, and Ole Miss took full advantage.
LSU had no answer in the first half for stopping Ole Miss guard Cotie McMahon. The 6-foot Ohio State transfer, coming off a 39-point performance in Tuesday’s win over No. 21 Tennessee, had 18 of her game-total 25 points in the opening two quarters.
“I’m not taking anything away from LSU, but we ran out of gas,” said Ole Miss head coach Yolett McPhee-McCluin, whose team played its fifth game in 10 days. “We missed 17 shots around the basket. We shot 58 percent from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter. We won the second and third quarters. If LSU is No. 7, then we’re No. 8.”
Mulkey made some surprising strategic decisions at halftime and during the second half.
First, she started Fulwiley in the second half and benched junior All-SEC first-team guard Mikaylah Williams of Bossier City Parkway.
Williams had 7 points, no rebounds, and 4 of LSU’s first-half turnovers.
Then, Mulkey uncharacteristically used a 3-2 zone defense, followed by employing her “big” lineup featuring 6-5 Kaye Koval and 6-2 Amiya Joiner just in time for the Tigers to throw up a defensive wall around the basket in the closing quarter.
“You make decisions in the game,” Mulkey said. “Sometimes they’re the right decisions. Sometimes, they’re not.
“We have players when one’s not playing good, give somebody else a chance (benching Williams for the first time in her college career). We went to a 3-2 zone just to give some different looks. And I almost waited too long to play our big lineup because Ole Miss had gotten too many chances for second points.”
Fulwiley (10 points), Richard (6 points) and Johnson (3 points) combined for all of LSU’s points in its strong finish.
Five of the Tigers’ six field goals were driving layups, four by Fulwiley. The Tigers also made its last 7 of 8 free throws, including 4 of 4 by Richard, whose foul line jumper tied the game at 69-69 with 3:41 left.
“We just kept chipping away,” Mulkey said, “and just kept running and running and running.”
LSU, which is in fourth place in the SEC, has three remaining regular-season games. It plays home vs. Missouri on Sunday and Tennessee next Thursday and then at Mississippi State next Sunday.
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com