NEW ORLEANS –LSU overcame a 15-point deficit to defeat Tulane, 59-54, on Sunday afternoon at the Avron B. Fogelman Arena in Devlin Fieldhouse in New Orleans. With the win, the Tigers improve to 3-1 on the young season while the Green Wave falls to 2-2.
Three Tigers finished the game in double-figures. Faustine Aifuwa led all scorers with 18 points while adding six rebounds. Khayla Pointer scored 17 points, with 16 coming in the second half, and went 9-12 from the free throw line. Ayana Mitchell notched her 29th career double-double as the senior finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
How It Happened
- After Tulane jumped out to an early 8-4 lead in the first quarter, but back-to-back buckets by Aifuwa and Ayana Mitchell tied things up at 8 a piece.
- The score bounced back and forth in the last five minutes of the first quarter, with two ties and two lead changes.
- Karli Seay, who finished the game with a team-high six assists, found Aifuwa under the basket with under a minute remaining to give the Tigers a 16-14 lead after one quarter. Aifuwa finished the first quarter with a team-high eight points.
- The Green Wave outscored the Tigers 17-2 in the second quarter to take a 31-18 lead into the halftime break.
- The Tigers came out of the halftime break looking to bring the energy on the defensive end. After forcing five turnovers in the first five minutes, the Tigers went on a 9-0 run to cut the deficit down to 31-27 with 5:39 remaining in the quarter.
- The Tigers were able to force a total of eight Tulane turnovers, and outscored the Green Wave 17-7 in the third. Tulane led 38-35 going into the fourth quarter.
- Seay found Khayla Pointer in transition to start the fourth quarter to tie the game up, 38-38, for the first time since the 2:33 mark in the first quarter.
- The Tigers took their first lead since the end of the first quarter after Mercedes Brooks went 2-2 from the free throw line to make it 40-38 with 8:41 remaining.
- The Tigers stretched their lead to three after Pointer hit her second triple of the game with 7:48 remaining.
- After Tulane tied things up at 45, Mercedes Brooks hit her first triple of the game to put the Tigers back in front 48-45 at the 5:32 mark.
- The Tigers forced another Green Wave turnover with 3:33 remaining. After a Pointer shot attempt, Mitchell grabbed an offensive rebound and passed it back out allowing the Tigers to take more time off the clock.
- Tulane hit a three-pointer with 1:14 on the clock to cut the Tiger lead to just one, but LSU very quickly responded as Aifuwa hit a contested layup to once again push the Tiger lead to four.
- Tulane started to send the Tigers to the free throw line with 41.2 left in regulation. Pointer went 2-2 to push the lead to five forcing Tulane to call a timeout.
- After a Tulane three-pointer cut the Tiger lead to two, the Green Wave sent Jaelyn Richard-Harris to the line. The senior calmly knocked down both shots to push the lead back to four.
- The Tiger defense stepped up once again, forcing an air ball and forcing Tulane to foul with 4.9 seconds remaining. Pointer once again hit both shots at the line to ice the victory for the Tigers.
- After shooting 27.6 percent from the field in the first half, the Tigers rebounded in a big way in the second half by shooting 57.9 percent and 75 percent from beyond the arc.
- LSU forced a season high 21 turnovers, which included 12 in the second half.
- The Tigers went 12-16 (75.0%) from the free throw line in the fourth quarter.
- This was the first time the Tigers overcame a 10 point plus deficit to win since 2004 when LSU trailed Arkansas 33-23 at the half and came back to win.
UP NEXT
The Tigers will be back in the friendly confines of the Pete Maravich Assembly Center for their next two games. LSU plays Southeastern Louisiana on Wednesday, November 20, at 6:30 p.m. CT. The Tigers will then host Rutgers on Sunday, November 24, at 7 p.m. CT.
LSU Head Coach Nikki Fargas
On coming out of the halftime break with a lot of energy…
“I just challenged them. But more importantly they challenged each other. It’s all about the heart and playing with the heart of a champion. I wanted to see what we were made of tonight. This team knows how to fight and never give up. Tulane is a really good team. They have scorers, three-point shooters, dribble-drive threats, and good post play. We knew this game was going to be a challenge. Again, the challenge is always within yourself and I thought our kids did a nice job of answering the challenge. To win again on the road is huge.”
On Tulane coming out hot in the second quarter and how the Tigers responded…
“When you pick up a team at 94 feet, you are going to wear on them eventually. We tested our conditioning and the mental toughness of this team. We decided to get back to our man-to-man defense. I thought that Karli Seay and Jailin Cherry really tried to disrupt a really good player in (Arsula) Clark. Then to see the toughness that it takes to out-rebound Tulane was good. I thought Khayla Pointer was big from the free throw line as was the whole team. I also can’t say enough about the play of our bench. Mercedes Brooks came in and knocked down some shots and Jaelyn Richard-Harris really set the tone with her pressure on the ball. I thought that was really disruptive to their offensive execution.”