LSU Athletics
BATON ROUGE, La. – LSU women’s basketball makes its much anticipated return to the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Tuesday when the Tigers host Houston Christian for the program’s 2025-26 season opener.
LSU will play three games this week with Houston Christian (Tuesday) and Southeastern Louisiana (Thursday) at home and Georgia Southern (Sunday) representing the Tigers first true road test. Individual game tickets for games at the Maravich Center are available for purchase at LSUtix.net.
LSU will face Houston Christian for the third time in series history with the Tigers holding a 2-0 advantage. The last time LSU and Houston Christian met in women’s basketball was in Coach Kim Mulkey’s second season where LSU came away with the 101-47 victory.
The Tigers provided a stellar defensive effort in their 121-41 victory over Langston in the final exhibition before the season opener. The LSU defense flexed its muscles all night long, holding the Langston offense to 15-of-44 (34.1%) from the field and 4-of-20 (20.0%) from behind the three-point line. LSU was able to hold the Lions to under 15 points in each quarter, while its offense put together four quarters of 27-plus points in each period. The LSU defense forced 36 turnovers, while only turning the ball over eight times as an offensive unit.
Senior Amiya Joyner led the Tigers against Langston, collecting a double-double on the evening with 24 points and 11 rebounds. Joyner went a perfect 9-for-9 from the field. Fellow forward Kate Koval shined, recording the other double-double of the game. Koval accounted for 12 points and 11 rebounds in the exhibition game.
In addition to Joyner, five other Tigers scored in double figures, including freshman guard Bella Hines (14), Koval (12), junior guard MiLaysia Fulwiley (11), senior guard Flau’Jae Johnson (10), and sophomore guard Jada Richard (10).
Mulkey is entering her fifth season leading the Tigers after another Elite Eight run last season. LSU returns key players including First-Team All-SEC duo of Johnson and Mikaylah Williams. Kailyn Gilbert, an important role player who logged impactful minutes last year, also returns to the loaded backcourt alongside Richard, who will look to build on her strong freshman season. Senior Izzy Besselman also returns to this year’s squad for the final time in her hometown.
LSU brought in a trio of transfers. The Tigers added the gem of the offseason recruiting cycle in Fulwiley from South Carolina and two post players, Joyner from East Carolina and Koval from Notre Dame.
LSU will put the No. 1 recruiting class on display this season with Hines, ZaKiyah Johnson, Divine Bourrage, and Grace Knox. LSU’s class was unanimously ranked No. 1 across all the different recruiting services. All four signees were five-star recruits who rank as high as the top-24. LSU would add Meghan Yarnevich in May to round out the freshman class for the 2025-26 season.
The Houston Christian Huskies are led by first-year head coach Drew Long. Long’s first team features four returners from last season along with seven transfers and three incoming freshmen.
