LSU blows out NC State 82-64 to win Pink Flamingo Championship

After some inconsistent performances earlier this year, LSU put together its best game of the season on Wednesday afternoon, beating NC State 82-64 and winning the Baha MarPink Flamingo Championship. The Tigers now improve to 8-0 and have a pair of high-major wins under their belt as they approach the end of November.

LSU was led by a huge bounce back game from Mikaylah Williams who followed up a zero point performance with 24 points on Wednesday on 7-of-13 shooting and 4-of-7 from 3-point range. Joining her in double figures was Aneesah Morrow with 20 points and 15 rebounds, Flau’Jae Johnson who had 16 points on 5-of-7 shooting, and Kailyn Gilbert who had 12 points and 4 assists in 19 minute off the bench. 

As a team, LSU shot 52.7 percent from the field, 7-of-14 from 3-point range, and 17-of-20 from the free throw line. Turnovers were a problem early on, but the Tigers were able to pull away regardless in what was a resounding victory. Defensively, LSU held NC State to 35 percent shooting for the game and only 18 points in the paint and five fast break points.

The Tigers’ next game is Sunday, Dec. 1 against NC Central at 2 p.m. in the PMAC.

LSU head coach Kim Mulkey after the game 

What she learned…

“That’s our first ranked opponent to face so I recognize that we’re growing and we’re getting better. We had the tight game against Washington and lucked up and made a shot at the end and things like that can propel you to do good stuff and tonight we saw zone again anf got a big stagnant, but we’ll continue to get better at attacking zones. The people who played for us tonight, in particular Kailyn Gilbert, she just makes things happen.”

On Mikaylah Williams’ performance…

“Mikaylah is her own worst critic. She’s brought up in a family of basketball players and sometimes she makes things too hard on herself, but this doesn’t surprise me. She’s at a level now where she’s going to have games like that, but you can’t dwell on it. She deals with plantar fasciitis and when she gets healthy that young lady is spacial.”

Strength of this LSU team…

“Before the tournament, I think people would say our perimeter is pretty good and we have depth, but after the Washington game, both posts had double doubles and a lot of offensive boards, so I think they took it to heart. We know we don’t have Angel Reese, we know what we’ve lost, but we’re not trying to be Angel Reese, we’re trying to be who we are and we’re pretty good players down there in the post.”

Mikaylah Williams quotes

On her approach to this game…

“I think the biggest thing for me was that it’s a new day. Monday’s over, I can’t do anything about it, because at the end of the day, basketball’s basketball and everything not got to fall. It’s just a new day and my coaches and teammates feeding that confidence in me where I just came in here like a new game, ready to shoot again.”

On being aggressive early…

I think my biggest thing was just seeing the ball go away and whether it was layouts and my shot happened to fall today, so I got to the freak line, I got to see the ball go in on easy points and that just made me extend the line and be able to shoot the three ball.”

On LSU getting the big win…

“I think just being disciplined. We had a game plan and we executed it and it was an outstanding job by our coaching staff that prepared the scout for us and we followed it to the Tee, and that’s why we came out with the victory.”