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LSU to 'look in mirror' after another close loss to South Carolina
- Story byThe Daily Advertiser
- LSU to 'look in mirror' after another close loss to South Carolina
BATON ROUGE – Two years ago, LSU women's basketball led most of the way against South Carolina at home before losing by six. A few weeks later, LSU dropped the SEC Tournament championship game against the Gamecocks where it led in the fourth quarter.
That's just brief snapshot of close losses that LSU women's basketball has endured the last couple of seasons. There's been bad beats at Texas at Alabama on the road, to Ole Miss at home last season and NCAA Tournament heartbreaks against UCLA. Even this season, a buzzer-beating loss to Kentucky and a hurtful loss at Vanderbilt.
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LSU had chance after chance against South Carolina against inside Pete Maravich Assembly Center Saturday. And once more, the timely shot, the big free throw and the key defensive stop slipped away as the No. 3 Gamecocks edged No. 6 LSU, 79-72 .
MORE LSU WBB COVERAGE LSU women's basketball falls to South Carolina – Game Highlights
"Some of us just have to look in the mirror, down the stretch, bow our neck and stop dropping these close games," LSU star junior guard Mikaylah Williams said. "Doing what we need to do early in the game so it doesn't come down to free throws at the end of the game. I think taking care of our business in the first half so we don't have to do all that fighting on the backend."
Kim Mulkey said did not know where the nine missed free throws by her team came from as foul shots have not been an issue. Senior star Flau'jae Johnson missed two free throws with 45 seconds left that would've given the Tigers (23-4, 8-4 SEC) the lead over South Carolina (25-2, 11-1).
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But that wasn't the only thing that factored into LSU coming up short. Gamecocks junior guard Tessa Johnson ran roughshod over LSU as Mulkey shouted to her team during timeouts, pleading with anyone of her team to correctly guard the wiry shot-maker. She ended up with 21 points.
"I liked everything we did except I didn't like the way we guarded Tessa (Johnson)," Mulkey said. "We didn't do what we were told to do for three days."
Those kinds of mishaps have been reoccurring problems for LSU against top competition the last couple of years. Mulkey's team will be efficient and impactful of a lot of areas but against top-5 teams, it'll to be put it all together and it hasn't.
"LSU got multiple offensive rebounds at the end of the game that put them in a position to close the gap, to go ahead," Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley said. "At the end, we got lucky. Flau'jae doesn't miss free throws. We got a bucket after that.
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"It's those kinds of plays that are determining the game. They got a lot of them. They got 18 offensive rebounds on us, 18 offensive rebounds from a team like LSU means they win basketball games like this. It's surprising to see just how bad it was."
The push for LSU now lies in its ability hone in on its focus near the end of games when it's tight. More focus during all portions of the game, the players know, will make the difference being winning and losing. The buck starts with Johnson and Williams.
"It's continuing to focus on the little things," Johnson said. "Holding each other accountable, we have to continue to do that. These close games, you never want to lose them. It's not one play at the end, it's an accumulation of things we can do better. That starts with me and Mikylah.
"We're going to go back to the drawing board and we got to be better."
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Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com .
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: What's keeping LSU women's basketball from finishing close games?
