When opponents gameplan for the LSU Women's Basketball team, the gameplan is clear slow LSU's big three of Flau'Jae Johnson, Aneesah Morrow, and Mikaylah Williams. In LSU's biggest game yet against the Florida State Seminoles, it wasn't Johnson, Morrow, or Williams who proved to be the X-Factor rather, it was Center Sa'Myah Smith.
The Redshirt Sophomore turned in her best performance of her young career scoring 20 points on 9-9 shooting from the field, with 12 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals, and a block. While Aneesah Morrow and Mikaylah Williams had their massive showings, Smith giving the Tigers her best game yet was key to LSU advancing to the Sweet 16.
Smith's massive game came out of nowhere, this season she's averaging just 5.8 points per game, 6.0 rebounds per game, and 0.6 assists per game. Based on her performance, it's clear that Florida State had no plan to slow her and Kim Mulkey used that to her advantage.
Aneesah Morrow and Sa'Myah Smith made Women's NCAA Tournament history as the first frontcourt duo to record double-doubles with 5 or more assists. The Seminoles had no answer the entire night for LSU's duo on the inside and Kim Mulkey's gameplan to utilize her forwards wrecked the Seminoles.
While the Big Three has garnered the majority of the attention and rightfully so, Sa'Myah Smith has been a massive piece to LSU's success and she showed up with a massive performance in this game. If LSU is going to get the level of production from Smith inside that she brought in this game going forward, the Tigers are going to be next to impossible to beat going forward.
After the game, Last-Tear Poa was asked about Sa'Myah Smith's big game to which she said the following:
"She performed excellent tonight. She knew her scouting report, she grabbed rebounds, and she scored inside. She was amazing."Last-Tear Poa
The Lady Tigers next game comes against the NC State Wolfpack who LSU beat 82-65 earlier in the season. The Wolfpack have improved a ton since that game but, when LSU first faced off Aneesah Morrow had a massive game inside. If LSU is going to advance to the Elite Eight, Smith will be heavily involved once again as LSU looks to shrink the opposing defense allowing the sharpshooter on the outside open looks.