BATON ROUGE – Behind excellent performances from both Aneesah Morrow and Flau’Jae Johnson, No. 5 LSU (21-1, 6-1) got back into the win column Sunday afternoon as the Tigers took care of Texas A&M (10-9, 3-4) at home by a score of 64-51.
Morrow notched her 1,000th career point in an LSU uniform with her second basket of the game, as she scored 19 points. She also climbed into the top-10 in NCAA DI history for rebounds with 9 on Sunday. Morrow now has 1,538 career rebounds.
Johnson contributed to the victory as she posted an impressive performance of 22 points and 5 rebounds.
Jada Richard gave LSU a spark off the bench in the first half with three starters in foul trouble. Richard scored 7 points and Kailyn Gilbert gave 6 points of contribution off the bench.
The Aggies were led Sunday afternoon by Taliyah Parker, who finished with 13 points. Aicha Coulibaly scored 12 points in the first half, but suffered an injury late in the first half and she was not able to return.
For the second game in a row LSU did not shoot the ball well. After shooting below 30-percent on Friday against South Carolina the Tigers were limited to 32-percent against the Aggies. But LSU’s defense limited Texas A&M to 31-percent shooting.
LSU’s defense and rebounding allowed the Tigers to come away with the victory, forcing 21 turnovers and grabbing 52 rebounds. LSU’s 30 offensive rebounds is the most in a SEC game in program history.
”Thirty offensive boards, 21 turnovers,” Coach Kim Mulkey said. “That’s rebounding, and that’s defense, and when it’s tough for you on the offensive end, that’s what keeps you in ball games, and that’s what helps you win ball games. And I know I’ve preached that since I’ve been here, but this is a great example of it today.”
LSU is back at home Thursday night to host No. 15 Oklahoma for the annual white out game. The game will air on ESPN2 at 6 p.m. CT.
After a defense-dominated opening ten minutes, the Aggies were able to claim a one point lead heading into the quarter break, 13-12. Texas A&M’s Aicha Coulibaly led all scorers with 7 points. LSU started the day cold, shooting just 28-percent in the opening quarter.
Despite the rough start to the day, the Tigers came out and made three straight buckets to start the quarter, capped by an Aneesah Morrow layup off of a Sa’Myah Smith steal. LSU continued the hot start as they outscored Texas A&M 13-4 in the first 5:58 of the period. The Aggies responded well and held LSU to just three points in the final four minutes of the first half, as it ended with LSU ahead by five, 30-25. The Tigers battled foul trouble in the first half with Johnson, Morrow and Williams all committing two fouls.
The third quarter continued the defensive motif of the game, as both teams failed to shoot above 35% in the period, which was highlighted by a 11-6 Aggie run that cut the LSU lead to just 2 with 2:55 left in the quarter. Layups from Flau’jae Johnson on back to back possessions pushed the Tiger lead back to 6 as the third quarter ended 44-38.
With 6:32 left in the game Texas A&M hit a three to bring the score within two, but Kailyn Gilbert answered with a three of her own on the end to score her first points of the game. Johnson scored on a breakaway after a steal on the next possession for a 5-0 LSU run as Texas A&M took a timeout with LSU leading, 53-46.
Gilbert drained another trey under four minutes to make the score 58-49. That ultimately proved to be too much for Texas A&M to overcome, as the Tigers were able to close out the win with a final score of 64-51.
**LSU Press Release
