(Photo courtesy of @LSUwbkb on X)
BATON ROUGE – No. 6 LSU (18-0, 3-0 SEC) will return home to the PMAC Monday night to host Vanderbilt (14-3, 1-2 SEC) at 6 p.m. CT on the SEC Network.
Courtney Lyle and Carolyn Peck will call the action on the SEC Network. Fans can also listen to Patrick Wright and Shaeeta Williams on the LSU Sports Radio Network. Monday night will be the final Beat the Buzzer promotion for the women’s basketball season where fans can receive discounted concessions from when doors open one hour prior to tip until 10 minutes from tip time.
LSU remained unbeaten Thursday night with a road win at No. 16 Tennessee. Kailyn Gilbert, Flau’Jae Johnson and Aneesah Morrow all scored at least 20 points in the win. With the game tied at 87, Gilbert hit her second game winner of the season with less than a second remaining. Johnson stuffed the stat sheet 20 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and one block. Morrow continued her dominance with 23 points and 21 rebounds to become the first player this season to record multiple 20/20 games.
Morrow surpassed 2,500 career points in Thursday’s win as she recorded her 90th career double-doubles which is tied for the third most in NCAA DI history. She is now just 12 rebounds shy of 1,500 in her career as she looks to become just the eighth player in DI history with 2,500 points and 1,500 rebounds; Courtney Paris (Oklahoma), Wanda Ford (Drake), Patricia Hoskins (MVSU), Chiney Ogwumike (Stanford), Cheryl Miller (USC), Cheryl Taylor (Tennessee Tech), Liz Kitley (Virginia Tech).
After starting the season 14-1, Vanderbilt has dropped two straight games against Kentucky and at Ole Miss. The Commodores have one of the nation’s top-10 scoring offenses with 87.3 points per game, but only mustered 68.5 points over the past two games. In their SEC opener, the Commodores scored 108 points in a win over Georgia, their fifth 100-point game this season. Vanderbilt also ranks in the top-10 nationally with 17.2 offensive rebounds per game, slightly below LSU’s 17.3 offensive rebounds per game. Defensively Vanderbilt ranks No. 14 in the SEC with a .405 field goal percentage defense.
Vanderbilt features a tandem that both rank inside the top-20 nationally in scoring. Khamil Pierre’s 22.1 points per game ranks No. 8 in the country and Mikayla Blakes’ 20.5 points per game ranks No. 17 nationally. Pierre’s 3.4 steals per game ranks No. 8 in the country. She is also grabbing 10.4 rebounds per game and ranks No. 2 behind LSU’s Morrow with 11 double-doubles this year.
The Tigers have won eight straight matchups against the Commodores. Vanderbilt last beat LSU in 2017.
