BATON ROUGE – No. 13 LSU, competing in its 30th NCAA Tournament, will host No. 14 San Diego State Saturday in the PMAC at 9:15 p.m. on ESPN.
No. 3 LSU hosts No. 14 San Diego State Saturday night at 9:15 p.m. CT in the PMAC for the NCAA Tournament First-Round on ESPN! pic.twitter.com/HNhnpSpSqf
— LSU Women’s Basketball (@LSUwbkb) March 21, 2025
The LSU-SDSU game will be the final NCAA Tournament game on Saturday to tipoff. No. 6 Florida State will take on No. 11 George Mason at 6:45 p.m. in the PMAC on ESPN2. LSU will also host a fan fest at 6:30 on the PMAC’s south pad.
The Tigers enter the NCAA Tournament healthy. Flau’Jae Johnson was held out of LSU’s three previous game with shin inflammation to ensure she was healthy for March Madness. Aneesah Morrow reaggravated a mid-foot sprain in the second half of LSU SEC Tournament seimifinal game against Texas. Both have been full participants in practice this week for LSU.
“I feel like I’m seeing the game from a different point of view, so I could help my team,” Johnson said of her time out. “At first it was hard. I learned to love the hard stuff. I learned to love conditioning. I learned to love just the little things a little bit more. So it hasn’t really been that difficult.”
“Of course it was difficult for me,” Morrow said of missing the second half against Texas. “I wanted to go back on the floor and be able to compete with my teammates, but sometimes you have to learn how to tell yourself no. Sometimes you might think that I’m super woman, but I’m not.”
Morrow, who is on the USBWA First Team All-America, leads the nation with 13.6 rebounds per game and with 27 double-doubles. Johnson, a USBWA Third Team All-America, is LSU’s leading scorer with 18.9 points per game. Johnson has scored 20+ points in three straight NCAA Tournament games going back to last season. Mikaylah Williams is the other member of LSU’s big three on the AP All-America honorable mention. She is scoring 17.2 points per game and has over 110 assists.
LSU will need to rely on other players outside of its big three to spark a deep March Madness run. Kailyn Gilbert has been a key scorer with multiple game winners. Mjracle Sheppard has provided strong defense. Sa’Myah Smith is a shot-blocking presence. Jersey Wolfenbarger has a guard skillset at 6-5. Jada can provide points off the bench. Shayeann Day-Wilson and Last-Tear Poa have the majority of the point guard assignments.
“You have to have them all do what they do best,” Coach Kim Mulkey said. “You don’t have to go get a role player and say you need to score this many points for us to win. You have to play your role.”
SDSU is led by Coach Stacie Terry-Hutson. She spent time as an assistant coach at LSU from 2011-13. The Aztecs claimed the Mountain West Conference tournament with a thrilling, three-overtime win over Wyoming to punch their tournament ticket.
The Aztecs have won eight consecutive games. SDSU has a balanced scoring attack with five starters that all average between 7-12 points. They rank 11th in the nation with 27.1 bench points per game.
**LSU Press Release**
