LSU women control first half, but fall in heartbreaking fashion to South Carolina

Make no mistake: LSU was the underdog to South Carolina. Kim Mulkey acknowledged that Wednesday, one day before a raucous crowd overflowed into the aisles in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center to see the Tigers fall short against the No. 1 Gamecocks 76-70.

But it won’t help numb the sting of losing a game that No. 9 LSU controlled for most of the first half.

Officially, 13,205 fans powered LSU to a strong start, then fell quiet as South Carolina took the lead in the waning seconds of the fourth quarter.

“I’m not into moral victories.” LSU coach Kim Mulkey said. “Never have been. We had opportunities to win this game, and we didn’t.”

In the final minute, the Gamecocks (18-0, 6-0 Southeastern Conference) scored six straight points, pulling in front of a Tigers team that didn’t have Angel Reese, who fouled out with four minutes to play. South Carolina sank six of its final seven shots. LSU, on the other hand, missed six of its final seven shots.  

By the end of the night, South Carolina had converted 47.7% of its total field goals and 35% of its total 3-point tries. It fought for a 39-37 rebounding advantage over LSU, and earned four more trips to the free-throw line, where it converted seven of its 13 attempts. 

The Tigers (18-3, 5-2) received solid, efficient production from both Reese and Aneesah Morrow, who combined to score 31 points on 14-of-26 shooting. But star freshman Mikaylah Williams shot just 1 for 10 from 3-point range, where she missed a pair of key looks down the stretch. 

“I thought late in the game, we lost it on the defensive end of the floor. We got too far off of people trying to help, or we got fatigued. We were just too far off and allowed some things to happen.”

Reese, who anchored LSU’s defense and powered most of its offense, picked up her fourth foul while battling for a rebound with South Carolina center Kamilla Cardoso. At the time, the Tigers led 57-52 with a little more than eight minutes to play. 

Two minutes later, the Gamecocks tied the score at 61 with a trip to the free-throw line, then took the lead on a strong Cardoso layup through contact. 

After Reese re-entered, LSU pulled back in front. First, Hailey Van Lith nailed a one-legged runner in traffic. Then, Williams splashed a 3-pointer from the right corner despite a heavy contest. South Carolina coach Dawn Staley called a timeout. 

Reese then picked up her fifth foul with 4:02 remaining, and the Gamecocks took a three-point lead on a wide-open 3-pointer from the right wing. But LSU battled back and tied the score again after Van Lith buried a 3 on the other end, blew a kiss to the crowd and screamed encouragement to her teammates in the LSU huddle. 

But South Carolina was too hot from long distance. Hall’s 3 from the right corner gave the Gamecocks the lead, and Raven Johnson’s layup was the dagger that put away the Tigers for good. 

“It was on the far end because we’re on defense down there,” Mulkey said. “So, we couldn’t scream and holler at them, but there were several possessions on the defensive end where we needed to make stops, and we just didn’t do it.”

In the fourth quarter, South Carolina hit three of its four 3-point attempts. It was quite the difference from the first half, when its offense converted just 4 of 11 attempts from 3-point range as LSU raced out to a few early leads.

When Flau’jae Johnson attacked a closeout, drove the rim and used a euro-step to covert a layup halfway through the second quarter, South Carolina fell into a 34-23 hole, which equaled the largest deficit they had faced all season. 

For their strong start, the Tigers have their frontcourt to thank. Morrow gave LSU a couple 3s and a quick 10 points in the first quarter. Reese took advantage of mismatches in the paint and scored 11 first-half points. And Aalyah Del Rosario, the 6-foot-6 freshman center, chipped in three blocks, five rebounds and a difficult putback layup through contact.

LSU grabbed seven more offensive rebounds than South Carolina across the first two quarters. The advantage gave the Tigers nine more shot attempts, which they used to offset otherwise even shooting numbers and enter halftime with a 41-36 halftime lead.

In fact, the Tigers fought for three separate 11-point leads throughout the first half. But each time they threatened to pull away, South Carolina whittled the deficit back to single digits.

That was the work of freshman guard Milaysia Fulwiley, who scored eight points over the last four minutes of the half. First, she converted a transition layup and 3-pointer on consecutive possessions, bringing the Gamecocks within six with just under four minutes to play. Then, she nailed another 3 at the halftime buzzer to cut the LSU lead to five.

As it turned out, the cushion was too small to give LSU room to battle through Reese’s foul trouble and South Carolina’s red-hot fourth quarter shooting. Mulkey said after the game that she thought the three first-half stretches in which South Carolina trimmed LSU’s leads came back to bite her team late in the second half. 

“I’m sure I’ll toss and turn all night,” Mulkey said. “Don’t know if I’ll sleep much. But that’s a personality deal. We’ll learn from it just like we did when we went to South Carolina last year. This is just one game.”

The Tigers have now lost 15 straight games to the Gamecocks. 

Next, LSU will hit the road to face Mississippi State at 6 p.m. Monday on ESPN2.