The LSU Lady Tigers and the Alabama Crimson Tide met on the court in Tuscaloosa with massive Post Season implications for both teams. The Crimson Tide are pushing to host their first NCAA Tournament game while LSU is still fighting for Top 4 seeding in the NCAA Tournament. The majority of the night LSU did not have its best game yet, the Lady Tigers were able to fight back forcing overtime before falling short in overtime.
The Lady Tigers found themselves in a hole early on as the Tigers couldn't get the three pointer to fall while Alabama was red hot from three and grabbing offenisve rebounds. The Tigers offense did eventually find its rhythm but, the Tigers trailed by 7 at the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter it became clear that the Lady Tigers didn't have their A-Game as Alabama stretched their lead to as many as 13 due to LSU's offensive struggles, turnovers, and Alabama dominating the paint. Good things started happening for LSU when they started to attack the paint rather than settling for jumpers but, they entered the half trailing by 11.
The Lady Tigers started to reel it in on defense in the 3rd quarter and it helped LSU's offense cut into Alabama's lead. The Tigers offense struggled so much early on in part because Flau'Jae Johnson struggled as she made her first field goal midway through the 3rd quarter.
In the fourth quarter, it was the defense sparking the offense for the Lady Tigers as LSU was able to get out in transition to beat Alabama's defense. The Lady Tigers took their first lead of the game with just over two minutes left in the game as the Tigers never stopped fighting despite the struggles. The final two minutes were an absolute war with both teams trading leads.
The biggest play of the night by Aneesah Morrow was a bone crushing screen that gave Mikaylah Williams the space to tie the game with 23.3 seconds to play. Alabama had the ball with the chance to win the game with 8.2 seconds left in the game but, the final shot of regulation rimmed out.
Overtime had both teams walking on eggshells as everyone was seemingly in foul trouble after a physical game. Both teams looked gassed in the fourth quarter and the game started to be sloppy down the stretch. We saw College Basketball officiating at its worst as Flau'Jae Johnson took an elbow to the face coming up from the floor bloodied yet, there's no way to overturn the foul on review as the referees could only add an intentional foul on Sarah Ashlee Barker.
The play was a massive swing in the game as rather than Alabama getting the ball back with a full shot clock LSU got two shots and the ball with just over 30 seconds left in the game. Mikaylah Williams missed one of the technical free throws and had her shot blocked which put LSU in trouble as Alabama got to the free throw line with 3.5 seconds left. Needing a three LSU got Mikaylah Williams a look from three to send it to double overtime but, Williams just hardly missed long.
While in most games it is Flau'Jae Johnson and Aneesah Morrow getting it done for LSU, in this game it was the play of Sa'Myah Smith and Mikaylah Williams getting it done for the Lady Tigers. Sa'Myah Smith was the go-to on the inside for LSU scoring 15 points on 7-11 shooting from the field while grabbing 6 rebounds. Mikaylah Williams scored 22 for the Tigers on 8-17 shooting from the field with 4 assists.
Flau'Jae Johnson couldn't get anything going in this game going 2 for 12 from the field with just 6 points which made it nearly impossible to win with. The difference in this game was free throws as Alabama made three more from the line on the same number of attempts as LSU.
As Kim Mulkey looks for consistency at point guard, Mjracle Sheppard needs to get extended playing time as the Tigers have looked the best with her on the court as she scored 10 points off the bench.
This loss could have a significant impact on LSU's seeding in the NCAA Tournament as they could fall off of the two line into a three seed ahead of the NCAA Tournament. The Lady Tigers close out the Regular Season on Sunday when they take on the Ole Miss Rebels.