BATON ROUGE – No. 6 LSU (15-0) battled a slow start Sunday against UAlbany (10-3), but the Tigers remained unbeaten with a 83-61 win to finish non-conference play unbeaten; LSU will start SEC play Thursday at Arkansas.
“The longer we play together, the better we will get,” Coach Kim Mulkey said. “The better teams we play, the better we will get. And we will see better teams in the SEC.”
The Great Danes came out hot, shooting 60-percent in the first quarter and led by as many as 12 early in the second quarter. They capitalized on four early LSU turnovers during the first five minutes of the game, but the Tigers stepped up their defense, limited turnovers and started to make shots to close out the calendar year with a 22-point win.
“I feel like once we figured out our defense, we were able to communicate and we knew that the third quarter was going to be very important,” Aneesah Morrow said. “We just started communicating and playing sound defense to win the game.”
Morrow logged her 13th double-double of the season with a 20 point, 18 rebound performance. In the fourth quarter alone, Morrow had 10 points and 10 rebounds.
“In the first half I got into foul trouble and I was not attacking the boards the way that I should have,” Morrow said. “I also knew that in the fourth quarter foul trouble was not an issue so I was able to go attack boards and be aggressive.”
Flau’jae Johnson finished with 15 points and 9 rebounds. Jersey Wolfenbarger had 11 points with 7 rebounds and Mikaylah Williams scored 18 points and grabbed 5 rebounds.
UAlbany was led by Laci Donovan, who scored 17 points on 5-12 shooting and added 5 rebounds. Kayla Cooper and Lilly Phillips both scored 14.
LSU dominated the glass, specifically on the offensive end. The Tigers had 23 offensive rebounds compared to 8 by the Great Danes which led to a 30-3 LSU advantage in second chance points.
Morrow started the scoring for the Tigers with a putback layup on the first possession of the contest. UAlbany jumped out to a 9-4 lead after the Tigers struggled to find offensive success in the first half of the opening quarter. Williams dropped a mid range jumper to cut the lead to 3 points entering the media timeout. UAlbany increased their lead to 18-10 shortly after the media timeout, connecting on multiple buckets in the paint. At the end of the first quarter, UAlbany led the Tigers 25-16. Donovan led the Great Danes in the first quarter with 13 points on 4-6 shooting. Williams paced the Tigers in scoring with 6 points in the first quarter. LSU committed 7 turnovers in the first quarter, but led the rebounding battle 13-5.
UAlbany came out firing in the second quarter, scoring 5 points in quick succession. LSU answered with buckets from Kailyn Gilbert and Johnson to make the score 30-20. Gilbert found Morrow in the paint through two defenders to cut the Great Dane lead to 11 with 6 minutes remaining in the half. Johnson then connected on a mid range jumper directly out of the media timeout to cut the UAlbany lead to 5 points. Williams then scored on the fastbreak to make the contest a one possession game with 2:30 remaining in the first half. The Tigers trailed UAlbany 34-38 at halftime. Williams led LSU in scoring in the first half with 8 points on 4-9 shooting. The Tigers also out rebounded the Great Danes 28-13 but failed to hit a three pointer in the first half, shooting 0-8 from beyond the arc. The Tiger offense thrived on second chance points in the first half, with 13 points coming on the second or third attempt of the possession.
Morrow connected on an acrobatic layup to kick off the second half scoring. Johnson then converted on a fastbreak layup to tie the contest at 40-40. The Tigers traded bucket after bucket with the Great Danes, but Johnson found space on yet another fastbreak to gain a two possession lead in the contest at 48-44. The Tigers maintained production of the offensive end, and jumped out to a 56-48 lead late in the third quarter. At the end of the third quarter, LSU led UAlbany 56-53. Wolfenbarger led the Tigers in the third with 6 points on a perfect 2-2 shooting mark. LSU outscored UAlbany 22-15 in the quarter to regain the lead in the contest.
Wolfenbarger continued her hot streak in the paint and opened the fourth quarter with a putback layup off the shot from Morrow. After UAlbany regained the lead on free throws, Morrow fought for a putback layup to earn the foul and convert the and-1. Morrow brought down her 10th rebound of the contest to earn the star forward yet another double-double on the season. The Tigers continued to apply pressure on the offensive end late in the game, with Morrow leading the way. LSU went on a 20-1 run over 6:30 in the fourth quarter to force a UAlbany timeout late in the game. With the game in hand, LSU was able to control the fourth quarter and hold the lead to finish the contest with a victory, 83-61.
**LSU press release
