LSU completes comeback with game-winner over Washington

LSU trailed by 13 in the third quarter and by seven with 2:38 left in the game, but never quit, continuing to hound on defense and attack the paint relentlessly, resulting in a 68-67 win on Monday afternoon in the Bahamas.

Kailyn Gilbert was the hero at the end as she recovered a loose ball saved by Flau’Jae Johnson and took it to the rim and finished with 1.6 left in regulation. Aneesah Morrow was able to break up the entry pass of the Huskies’ attempt to win the game, moving LSU to 7-0 on the year and giving the Tigers their first high-major win of the season.

LSU ended the game 35-of-76 from the field and 3-of-19 from 3-point range, but forced 18 turnovers, had 26 second chance points, and 14 points off the bench to help fuel the comeback. Johnson and Morrow led the way with 19 each, but Sa’Myah Smith was the star player, ending with 16 points and 15 rebounds on 6-of-11 shooting.

LSU will face North Carolina State on Wednesday at 12:30 in the Baha Mar Hoops Pink Flamingo Championship, in a top-20 matchup.

LSU Kim Mulkey’s quotes after the game

Initial thoughts…

“I’d love to tell you it was something I drew up to get us back in the game, but it wasn’t. This is a tournament where we are going to be challenged and we have to grow up. Me, as a coach, I’m sitting over there trying to figure it all out, I really am. I’m trying to figure out who I need to play. [Washington] has not played a zone in two years and they come out in the little 1-2-2 and it was effective. Outstanding coaching job from Washington, outstanding play from Washington, we were very fortunate to win the game, but along the way, we created some of that fortune. the decision to put Morrow on the ball with 1.6 to go was big because she got a deflection. I don’t know how we won that game because I want to tell you Washington played really well.”

On Mikaylah not scoring…

“the message is move on. This game can have the highest of highs and the lowest of lows and I imagine Mikaylah is beating herself up right now, but that’s why you have depth. Kailyn Gilbert didn’t get many minutes in the first half, so it’s my job to figure out who needs to be on the floor. We needed dribble penetration. We settled for all that lazy shooting from the perimeter and that’s great if it’s going in, but it wasn’t, so you have to have the ability to penetrate a zone and when you do that good things happen. KG is the best on our team at doing that. Our team needed something good to happen, even if we would have lost, we brought ourselves back and put ourselves in a position to win the game and that’s important to me. That’s very important when you have to replace as many players as we’re trying to replace.”

On Sa’Myah Smith…

“Sa’Myah is sick, so you have your team telling you to get her in and out, she’s not feeling good. Everytime I asked her how she was, she said ‘I’m good’, but it’s good to see Sa’Myah doing that because she’s been away from the game for a year and when she tore her knee up she was averaging a double double.”