LSU Athletics
BATON ROUGE, La. – As nearly 9,000 schoolchildren packed the stands at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center Tuesday morning, they were treated to a show from the fifth-ranked LSU women’s basketball team in its 91-33 victory over Morgan State in the program’s annual field trip game.
With the win, LSU picked up its 12th straight victory, improving its overall record to 12-0. With the loss, Morgan State dropped to 1-12 on the season.
LSU returns to action on Sunday, Dec. 21, when it takes on UT-Arlington inside the Maravich Center at 1 p.m. CT. The contest will be televised on SEC Network with Sam Gore and Tamika Catchings calling the action. Fans are encouraged to listen to the LSU Sports Radio Network with Patrick Wright and Shaeeta Williams on the call.
The official attendance of 8,743 announced at the LSU-MSU contest consisted of students from the greater Baton Rouge area. The collective had the opportunity to take in a game as classmates.
“They were loving it,” Coach Kim Mulkey said. “I was like, ‘God bless teachers.’ That’s my first thought. My second thought is, there’s some little girl in that stand that wants to be in that uniform one day, that wants to be at LSU as a student one day, maybe not even play sports. That’s what I told the team. There are little girls out there that used to be you and some of them, this may be the first and last time they ever see you play. Leave an impression.”
Senior Flau’jae Johnson and junior Mikaylah Williams led the Tigers’ scoring attack against MSU. Both finished with 14 points, but Johnson contributed four rebounds and two steals, while Williams had four rebounds and three assists.
Freshmen post players ZaKiyah Johnson and Grace Knox provided some valuable minutes throughout as the majority of LSU’s rotation had between 17 and 21 minutes played. Despite the near even distribution, ZaKiyah and Knox made an impact in the post. Knox finished with 10 points and seven rebounds, while ZaKiyah tallied eight points and seven rebounds.
“They have an unbelievable humble confidence about themselves,” Mulkey said. “They’ll answer your questions. They’ll play hard. They both had four and five offensive boards today. I don’t coach that, I just tell them to go get a board, go get us another chance. So, that’s why these kids fit in so well. They’re confident in what they do. They’re not arrogant. They want to contribute. They understand what lies ahead, and they know they’re going to be humbled, but at the same time, it’s not going to affect their confidence. They know they’re good players. So I’m glad y’all asked for them today. They got the it-factor.”
Sophomore Jada Richard (10) and junior MiLaysia Fulwiley (11) were the other Tigers to reach double figures in scoring.
LSU jumped out to a quick 9-2 lead before Morgan State decided to take a timeout with 8:14 remaining in the first quarter. Williams got the scoring started with a three-pointer. She drained a second three-pointer early on in addition to senior Amiya Joyner’s free throw and ZaKiyah’s second chance layup.
The Lady Bears answered out of the timeout with a made jumper and a free throw, but LSU proceeded to go on a 18-4 run to close out the first period.
MSU started the second quarter with a jumper from the Lady Bears leading scorer Michaela Bogans. Both teams traded the first five buckets before the Tigers went on an extended 21-2 scoring run to finish out the first half of LSU’s annual field trip game. The Tigers led 52-17.
LSU’s hot scoring continued into the second half as Johnson began the third quarter with a three-pointer. The Tigers opened the quarter on a 13-0 run and even with a couple stretches of Lady Bears scoring, LSU’s advantage was up to 49 at the end of the third quarter.
Going into the fourth quarter, LSU led 74-25. The fourth quarter saw more of the Tigers’ balanced scoring attack, as they closed out the game by outscoring MSU 17-8 in the final period to win 91-33.
