The LSU Lady Tigers were playing great basketball leading up to and into the SEC Tournament. Then a two-week break which allowed rust to form heading into Friday afternoon’s game against the Rice Owls.
The Lady Tigers played a sloppy game against Rice but still prevailed 70-60.
“It was an ugly basketball, but keep perspective you won, you survived and advanced,” said Coach Kim Mulkey.
LSU were heavy favorites to beat the Owls. Mulkey said overconfidence may have played a factor.
“It was a feeling about us, maybe a lack of urgency, thinking you can get beat, but at the end of the day, you had 24 turnovers,” said Mulkey.
In the locker room, Angel Reese and Hailey Van Lith both said 24 turnovers is not the standard for LSU and vow to take better care of the basketball in round two.
The Van Lith-Louisville reunion will not happen in round two.
11th-seeded Middle Tennessee State upset Louisville. The Lady Raiders found themselves down 28-12 after the first quarter. But scored 44 points in the second half to pull off the stunning comeback.
MTSU trailed by as many as 18 points in the first half and the comeback goes down as the third largest in NCAA Women’s Basketball history.
“We hung in there and got back at halftime, I think we were down 11 at halftime and we talked about cutting that in half by the end of the third quarter,” said Middle Tennessee coach Rick Insell. “I think we ended up taking the lead by the end of the third quarter. That put us right in it. It just came down to guts and willpower from both teams. Who was going to will themselves to victory? I’m awfully proud of our young ladies.”
It’s the first NCAA Tournament win for MTSU since 2007.
The Lady Raiders are 30-4 on the season.
They’ve been winning with defense. Middle Tennessee holds opponents to 54 points a game, eighth best in the country.
The Lady Raiders also attempt 24 three-pointers a game and they make 35 percent of them.
The LSU-Middle Tennessee game will be at 2 PM on Sunday.
