BATON ROUGE, La. – The fifth-ranked LSU women’s basketball team defeated Mississippi College, 148-46, in its first exhibition contest of the season on Thursday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
LSU’s 148 points in the exhibition game was the most during Coach Kim Mulkey’s tenure (exhibition or not), surpassing a 2023 regular-season win against McNeese when the Tigers scored 133 points. The most points scored in an exhibition with Mulkey at the helm came against Langston in the 2023-24 preseason prior to Thursday night.
LSU will have its final exhibition game against Langston at 7 p.m. CT on Thursday, Oct. 30, at the Maravich Center before opening the regular season at home against Houston Christian at 7 p.m. CT on Tuesday, Nov. 4.
The Tigers shot 68.2 percent from the floor on 58-of-85 shooting, shot nearly 50 percent from 3-point range (10-of-22), and were a solid 22-of-28 at the free throw line. The Tigers outrebounded the Choctaws, 62-12, and the home team was able to grab 20 offensive boards in the process.
Freshman guard ZaKiyah Johnson finished with a double-double after leading the team with 25 points (12-of-13) and 10 rebounds, half of them coming on the offensive glass. Johnson also had one block and one steal in the game.
“Well, she just goes and gets it,” Mulkey said “She quick jumps you. She’s gonna come off the boards with a dribble, and she’s heading down the floor. She’s a good player. She’s always around the ball, and she goes and gets offensive rebounds. She has never complained or wavered about anything. I believe in her moving her to the four; look at what we have on the perimeter. And as I told her, I’m just trying to get you on the floor. I need you to go play the four. Don’t look at it as a post, look at it as an opportunity to get lots of minutes. When I need her to go outside and play on the perimeter, she can do that too. But as you see, she’s very comfortable there.”
In addition to Johnson, six other Tigers scored in double figures, including junior guard MiLaysia Fulwiley (17), junior guard Mikaylah Williams (16), senior forward Amiya Joyner (15), freshman guard Bella Hines (14), freshman forward Kate Koval (14) and senior guard Kailyn Gilbert (13). Five of the seven players who scored in double figures were newcomers in the program.
“Well, they’re very talented,” Mulkey said of the freshmen class. “They know how to win, and because of that, they’re very confident, but yet, they’re coachable. They will have days where those older teachers in the SEC are going to pound their heads, and that’s when I’m going to watch and I’m going to enjoy coaching them because it’s only going to make them better.”
LSU began the scoring of the Tigers’ first exhibition by way of a Koval layup. LSU would score the first four points of the contest with another newcomer in Amiya Joyner converting on two free throws. After some back-and-forth scoring from both teams, the Tigers went on a 14-0 run early in the first quarter to take a 25-7 lead at the first timeout.
Coach Kim Mulkey decided to make wholesale changes in the lineup, entering four newcomers including Grace Knox, Hines, Johnson, and Fulwiley and Gilbert. That group scored the ball as effectively as the starting five going on a 14-2 scoring run themselves. LSU led the Choctaws 43-10 at the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter, LSU worked on extending its impressive lead, closing out the first half with a 74-23 lead at the half. Slowly but surely, LSU kept adding on to its point total and finished the third quarter with a 113-32 lead. The Tigers outscored their opponent in the third quarter 39-9 while shooting 16-of-24 from the field with four three-point field goals made.
With all hands on deck at this point in the game, LSU extended its margin of victory to 102 points as it closed out the contest in the Maravich Center. The 102 point margin of victory is the largest in LSU history regardless of its exhibition status. The previous high was 89 points against McNeese on Dec. 12, 2023.
