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Reese and Morrow Double-Doubles Power LSU Past Jacksonville, 110-68

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Reese and Morrow Double-Doubles Power LSU Past Jacksonville, 110-68

BATON ROUGE — Angel Reese and Aneesah Morrow both had double-doubles to power the Tigers past Jacksonville, 110-68, Saturday in the PMAC, closing out the year and the non-conference schedule.

“We have to take it up a notch now,” Coach Kim Mulkey said. “Everything we do has to be a little bit harder, a little bit more aggressive. The first part of our season is over. We have to evaluate what we think we did in the first part of our season and then we need to flush it. Now you go into the most important part, and that is SEC play.”

The Tigers will begin SEC play on Thursday at 8 p.m. CT when they host Missouri on the SEC Network.

“I think we have some things to clean up,” Coach Mulkey said. “We have time to prepare for a very good Missouri team. You know what you’re going to get from them. You have to defend in transition and defend the three ball. Hayley Frank is one of the top players in our league and in the country.”

Reese had 17 points and 20 rebounds, going 11-14 from the free throw line. It was her seventh 20-rebound game at LSU. She also had 3 assists, 3 steals and a block. Morrow had 20 points and 10 rebounds with 2 steals and 2 blocks for her eighth consecutive double-double

Flau’Jae Johnson also had 20 points with 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and two blocks. Mikaylah Williams finished with 17 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 steals. Aalyah Del Rosario went for 14 points and 7 rebounds with 2 blocks. Hailey Van Lith, in her first game back after missing the previous four, had 11 points, 5 assists and 4 steals. Last-Tear Poa had a game-high 7 assists.

For the team, LSU came out smoking and made six threes in the first quarter; eight in the game. It was the Tigers’ sixth 100-point game of the season.

Edyn Battle led Jacksonville with 17 points followed by Asiana Britt with 11. No Dolphin had over 3 rebounds or two assists.

Williams hit LSU’s first shot of the day, a three from the left wing assisted by Reese. Then it was Van Lith hitting her first shot attempt since returning, another three to give the Tigers a 7-0 start as Jacksonville took its first timeout. Williams hit her second three from the right corner off the baseline inbound dish from Van Lith as the Tigers continued their quick start. LSU started 10-0 before the Dolphins got their first bucket, but the Tigers went up 17-2 when Williams fired a cross-court pass to Van Lith on the right wing for her second three of the quarter. She hit a step-back three from the left wing on the next possession to start 3-3. Van Lith then hit Flau’Jae Johnson with a deep pass in transition to the left wing and she nailed it to go up 23-2 as the Dolphins called for another timeout which they came out of to go on a 9-2 run, but the Tigers finished the quarter up, 29-13.

Morrow pushed the Tigers past 30 on the first possession of the second quarter. Reese hauled in her 10th rebound within her first 13 minutes on the floor as she approached a double-double. Later in transition she found Williams cutting who pulled up and hit a mid-range jumper as LSU held a 40-23 lead into the media timeout. Johnson hit Last-Tear Poa in transition on the right wing to go up 47-26 for LSU’s seventh three of the opening half. Already with 16 boards, Reese sank two free throws to reach 10 points, all from free throws, for a first half double-double. LSU held Jacksonville without a made field goal through the final three and half minutes of the half to take a 51-33 lead into the break.

In the second quarter LSU got into the bonus quickly and subsequently shot 20 free throws, sinking 15 of them for the majority of the Tigers’ points in the quarter. 

Johnson got the Tigers quickly started with a left corner three on the first possession out for the half. After Van Lith’s third steal she found Angel cutting who made the layup for her first field goal of the game. Williams got the Tigers to 60 after a drive from the left wing, pulling up from six feet. After Jacksonville Coach Special Jennings was called for a technical, Williams went to line having made 31 consecutive free throws, but missed the first to end her streak. Aalyah Del Rosario put LSU over 80 in the third quarter with an and-one to give LSU an 82-52 lead going into the fourth. 

After Johnson got a layup off an inbound pass from Poa, Del Rosario converted another three-point play to go up 87-52. She got another bucket off an offensive rebound to make her the sixth Tiger in double-figures. The Tigers went over 90 after breaking a press resulting in a wide open layup for Morrow. Coach Jennings was called for another technical and Poa sank both free throws before Williams drove in for a layup to get the Tigers to the century mark.