BATON ROUGE – No. 10 LSU is set to return home to the PMAC for its next two games, beginning on Sunday at 4 p.m. on ESPN when the Tigers welcome Arkansas to town.
The Tigers went in to Tuscaloosa on Thursday to earn a 20-point victory and get back into the win column after dropping their second game of the season at Auburn last Sunday. Against the Tide, LSU’s second half defense was the catalyst as it held Alabama to shoot 4-25 from the field in the second half.
“We knew we had to come out and prove a point defensively,” Flau’Jae Johnson said Thursday after the game. “I don’t think we’ve been the defensive team we can be and we’ve just been working hard in practice to improve on that.”
ESPN will call the game with Tiffany Greene and Nikki Fargas. Patrick Wright and Shaeeta Williams will broadcast the game on the LSU Sports Radio Network, 107.3 FM in Baton Rouge. Prior to the game the Tiger Girls will perform their hip hop dance that recently won a national championship.
Angel Reese secured her 10th double-double of the season at Arkansas with 20 points and 16 rebounds. Through LSU’s first five SEC games, Reese has not scored below 20 points and she is averaging 21.2 points, 13.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game.
In the other post position, Aneesah Morrow has been just as dominant as Reese with 12 double-doubles on the year. At Alabama she had 20 points and 12 rebounds. Morrow is currently marching towards 2,000 career points, currently 81 points shy.
Flau’Jae Johnson played big, stuffing the stat sheet with a well-rounded game against Alabama. She finished with 10 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and a block. Alabama’s Aaliyah Nye scored 18 first half points, but Johnson shut her down in the second half limiting her shot attempts and holding her scoreless. Mikaylah Williams provided 14 points and 7 rebounds while Hailey Van Lith, scoring 8 points ran an efficient offense with 4 assists and no turnovers.
“Flau’Jae was two rebounds away from a double-double,” Coach Kim Mulkey said. “We’re asking her to guard the best player on the perimeter and we’re asking her to do other things offensively and then go rebound the ball. She was very, very active and that kind of activity is contagious.”
Arkansas was not in action on Thursday and like LSU, beat Alabama its last time out. The Razorbacks beat the Tide by 21 points last Sunday with 31 points from Samara Spencer. Arkansas had a +17 rebound margin in the game.
The Razorbacks enter Sunday’s game having taken the most three pointers across the SEC this season. The have attempted 564 threes on the season, over 130 more attempts than the next closest SEC team; 29.7 per game is the third highest mark in the nation. They have just the ninth best three-point percentage in the league, but have made the most due to the abundance they shoot from beyond the arc.
Freshman Taliah Scott has led Arkansas with 22.3 points per game this season, but she has not played since the conference opener. In conference action Samara Spencer has led the way, scoring 21.0 points per game.