COLUMBIA, Mo. – No. 6 LSU (24-1, 9-1 SEC) will leave Columbia with their ninth SEC win of the season as the Tigers took down Missouri (12-13, 1-9 SEC), 71-60, on Thursday night at the Mizzou Arena.
Missouri was able to dictate the pace much of Thursday’s game, but LSU found a way to finish the job and pick up a road win in conference. Flau’Jae Johnson finished with a game-high 19 points with 7 rebounds. Mikaylah Williams finished the night with 16 points and 5 assists of her own. Johnson and Williams both made three threes. Aneesah Morrow’s recorded her 22nd double-double of the season with 13 points and 14 rebounds along with 4 steals.
“We played at Missouri’s pace,” Coach Kim Mulkey said. “What I mean by that is they just run their offense so efficient and it sometimes can wear you down a little bit to where when you take off like we like to do to head to the other end, you just don’t have that speed and quickness like you normally do. We hung in there. Just grinded it out with six games left in the SEC season.”
LSU also had a great performance by Mjracle Sheppard off the bench who finished with 11 points and 7 rebounds.
“Mjracle was outstanding tonight,” Coach Mulkey said. “She pressured the ball. She’s very active rebounding the ball for her size. We sure needed her to be as good as she was tonight.”
Missouri’s scoring leader was Grace Slaughter, who had 18 points and was 2-4 from three point range.
Nine of Morrow’s rebounds came on the offensive end as she helped LSU outscore Missouri 20-3 in second chance points.
LSU will return home on Sunday to take on No. 19 Tennesse, fresh off of a win against No. 5 UConn, at home in the PMAC. Tip-off is scheduled for 3 p.m. CT on ESPN.
LSU struggled to put the ball in the bucket early on, but held Missouri to 33% from the field heading into the first media timeout trailing, 7-5. Missouri was able to dictate the pace of the game in the first quarter and led LSU, 15-11, at the end of the opening frame.
LSU found a better rhythm in the second quarter, starting with an 8-2 run to take the lead. Johnson began to find her stride, knocking down a pair of threes to bring her first-half scoring total to 8. The strong defensive play continued for the Tigers as they held Missouri to 2-9 from the three-point arc and forced 6 turnovers. LSU entered the locker room at the half leading 31-27.
Scoring remained hard to come by to begin the third period and Missouri took the lead with 5:45 left in the quarter, but the purple and gold Tigers responded well, as they closed the quarter on a 15-1 run to take its largest lead of the game, with the score being 51-39.
Despite the effort from Missouri to cut the lead to six with 2:59 left, LSU kept its composure and got to the finish line with the victory, as the game finished with a final score of 71-60.
**LSU Press Release**
