BATON ROUGE — Aneesah Morrow barreled across the free-throw line before turning down the edge of the lane. Two Florida State defenders crashed down on her as attention, naturally, gets drawn her way.
Morrow leapt up and dumped the ball over t o Sa'Myah Smith, who was streaking down the paint. Smith caught the pass in stride, quickly gathering before going up and finishing the uncontested shot at the rim.
The team and crowd inside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center exploded.
One of 20 total assists for the Tigers in the game, the play gave LSU women's basketball its largest lead of the game to that point, a 72-55 advantage with 3:34 left in the third quarter. LSU cruised the rest of the way to 101-71 win to advance to its third straight Sweet 16 in Spokane, Washington, next weekend where it'll play NC State.
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Five of Morrow's team-high seven assists went to Smith, who finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds. One of her five assists went to Morrow.
"It was something everybody was looking for all year, even myself," Smith said of the connection between herself and Morrow. "I think I finally came along, trying to help her a little bit. She's a dog, 24/7 that's just who she is in practice, in the games, in life.
"She definitely inspires me to be better, go out there and be a dog like her too."
Their teammates have gotten used to seeing the passes between the two posts in practice but it just hasn't rolled over into the games.
"We finally did in the game what we do in practice," LSU sophomore guard Mikaylah Williams said. "It's nothing new. We've seen it before, I'm just glad that everybody else can see it now.
"That's what happens when it looks good, fun. Everybody sharing the ball, everybody's scoring, everybody's eating, playing good defense, rebounding, running."
Smith and Morrow, who had 26 points and 11 boards, kept telling each other during the game that they were going to look for each other. Trust in the passes kept building between them.
"It helps when those two kind of know each other's tendencies," LSU coach Kim Mulkey said. "I thought we delivered passes into the post all night long that were not easy passes but they caught and they finished. That's what you have to do this time of year."
As LSU makes its way through March Madness, trying to find wrinkles to go as deep as possible, the added layer of how well Morrow and Smith can feed each other give teams something else to scout.
"There's always perfect timing sometimes," Morrow said. "I feel like clicking in March is the best time to show and display that. Have teams on their feet. It's good to see everybody back and healthy, play together and you get to see the work that we've put in these last couple of weeks.
"(Smith) was clicking. When somebody is clicking, I'm giving them the ball. You have to pick and choose your poison."
When Smith checked out of the game for the final time, she made her way down the bench, high-fiving all her coaches and teammates. LSU star Flau'jae Johnson stopped her and they shared an embrace.
Johnson's been searching for a way to tap into the player they know Smith can be.
"It was what I knew she was going to do. We just been waiting on her to emerge," Johnson said. "I've known her for three years. I was just trying to push her buttons. I've been pushing her buttons for weeks trying to see what's going to make her pop. I think this game gave her the confidence she needed. I think y'all are going to see a different Sa'Myah throughout the tournament. The one that we need.
"(I told her), 'This is what you were meant to do. Keep that confidence, don't ever dim your light. Be who you are.' She was damn-near on a triple-double watch. We play like this, it's whew…"
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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: LSU downs Florida State behind Aneesah Morrow-Sa'Myah Smith connection
