BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU women’s basketball team lost a tough battle with No. 12 Florida State at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center Saturday afternoon, 70-62. The Tigers dropped to 1-1 on the season, while the Seminoles improved to 2-0.
The teams fought back and forth for three quarters before FSU started to gradually pull away in the fourth quarter. There were 17 lead changes and eight ties over 40 minutes of action. The last tie came with 3:33 left in the game on a layup in the paint by LSU senior Ayana Mitchell, 62-62. Florida State scored eight unanswered points to finish the game and secure the win.
Junior Khayla Pointer was the leading scorer for the Tigers with 22 points and a team-high six assists. Mitchell and junior Faustine Aifuwa scored 10 points each for LSU. Mitchell just missed on her second double-double of the season with nine rebounds, while Aifuwa grabbed eight boards. On defense, Mitchell also drew three FSU offensive charges at key points throughout the game, a portion of her team-high 10 fouls drawn.
The season continues on Wednesday, November 13 with the first road trip of the year for LSU at Little Rock. The Tigers will face the Trojans at 6:30 p.m. at the Jack Stephens Center. The game will be broadcast on Cox Sports Television with Lyn Rollins and Victor Howell calling the action, along with Patrick Wright’s call on the LSU Sports Radio Network.
LSU Head Coach Nikki Fargas
On what the team can learn from this game going forward…
“I think the thing we have to learn from is when you are playing a team like Florida State, who has players that can play off the bounce, elevate, and shoot the mid-range jump shot – you can’t allow the bench to come in and contribute like they did. We didn’t do a great job of guarding their three-point shooter. We kept losing her in our half-court defense. We had too many of those break downs and she was able to connect on that.
From an offensive stand point, this team can operate at a high percentage especially when we get our transition game going, but because they (FSU) did a good job of getting on the offensive glass it eliminated our transition opportunities. We have to be better at hitting and connecting with the defender on the glass and keeping them from getting those second chance shots and I thought that was the difference in the game. The board play, and us losing (Sammie) Puisis from the three-point line really hurt us going through the game.”
On losing the momentum coming out of halftime…
“I thought that when we had an opportunity set the tone with our play in the third quarter, we missed it. It felt like our offense was starting to dictate how we played on the defensive end. We missed some wide open shots in the third quarter which puts a little more pressure on the defense and not being able to continue that momentum. I really felt in the first half of the third quarter it was all Florida State but then we regrouped and we came back and did what we needed to do to finish out and win that next segment.
You just talk to your team about one possession at a time and winning that possession. I thought we had some possessions that we strung along back-to-back-to-back where we would come down and score and then get a stop. But when the game is on the line, there’s some consistency that has to happen. We have a fairly young group but we also have to be able to connect on the free throw line late in the game and be able to make sure that you don’t miss your defensive assignment. You have to be on point defensively, especially late in the game.”