LSU women’s basketball sophomore guard Flau’jae Johnson (4) attempts to block her opponent Friday, March 22, 2024, during LSU’s 70-60 first-round NCAA March Madness tournament victory against Rice at the Pete Maravich Center in Baton Rouge, La.
LSU women’s basketball sophomore guard Flau’jae Johnson (4) attempts to block her opponent Friday, March 22, 2024, during LSU’s 70-60 first-round NCAA March Madness tournament victory against Rice at the Pete Maravich Center in Baton Rouge, La.
The road to Cleveland continues for LSU women’s basketball after defeating the No. 14-seed Rice 70-60. It now advances to the round of 32.
The Tigers will host their second game in the PMAC against the No. 11-seed Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders on Sunday at 2 p.m. C.T. The game will be shown on ABC.
Both teams pulled out close wins in their games. The Blue Raiders came back down 18 points against the No. 6-seed Louisville Cardinals. As for the Tigers, it was a win that was too close for comfort. LSU was favored by 28 points against the Owls, and many people thought the Tigers would be able to take care of business, but with poor turnovers, that was not the case.
Regardless of how they get it done, both teams will face off against each other in the second round, and there will be some important matchups to watch.
One of the key matchups for this game will be down low with the bigs between Angel Reese for LSU and Anastasiia Boldyreva for Middle Tennessee. Reese is known for being one of the best players in the country. She had another double-double in the win against Rice but only went 1-7 from the field. As for Boldyreva, she stands at a staggering 6-foot-6 and also recorded a double-double in her game against the Cardinals.
“I just know she’s a good player, and I watch her a lot,” Boldyreva said. “She has a good game, and I really respect it.”
The guards for the Blue Raiders are also something to keep an eye on. They are led by Savannah Wheeler, who leads the team in scoring with 17.4 points per game while shooting 38.4% from three. In her game on Friday, she had a slow first half, only scoring two points, but finished the game with 22 points and shooting 60% from three.
Her counterpart, Jalynn Gregory, also played well against Louisville and was the reason it was in the game even though it was down by 18. Gregory had 14 points in the first half and finished the game with 24 points, 57.1% from three.
Not only can the Blue Raiders get it done from the three-point line, but they also do a good job of attacking the basket in the pick-and-roll. That’s what makes them so dangerous offensively. They have multiple ways to score and can fight their way back, as they did on Friday.
“They execute really well,” LSU’s Hailey Van Lith said. “They have five players that can stretch the floor; they’re a mid-major, so everybody can shoot, everyone can hit the three. Our bigs are going to have to come outside and defend, which we are more than capable of we just have to be disciplined, not foul them, and play us.”
The Tigers only gave up 60 points to the Owls and held them to 35.4% from the field and 29.6% from three.
However, LSU struggled shooting from the field for the majority of the game but was able to use their defense to get points in transition and get to the free-throw line.
If the Tigers can continue to affect the game defensively as they did on Friday then it should be an interesting matchup between a great offensive team in Middle Tennessee and a great defensive team in LSU.
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