Women’s Basketball: LSU falls short in comeback at Missouri, 69-65

COLUMBIA, Mo. — The LSU women’s basketball team came up short in its comeback bid against Missouri on Sunday afternoon, 69-65, in Columbia. LSU is now 11-3 overall and 1-1 in SEC play.

Despite being down by 21 points at the half, LSU outscored Missouri 44-27 in the second half and closed to within 2 points late in the game.

Khayla Pointer led all scorers with 23 points, including shooting 11 of 12 from the free throw line. Ayana Mitchell recorded the 33rd double-double of her career with 14 points and 16 rebounds and made her second three-pointer of the season, just the ninth of her career.

Tiara Young came off the bench to make a solid impact in the second half, scoring 18 points and shooting 50 percent from the field.

LSU was able to win the battle of the boards, 38-34, and only committed seven turnovers during the game.

HOW IT HAPPENED
• It was a slow start for LSU, trailing 14-5 with just under five minutes left in the first quarter at the media timeout.
• LSU finished the first quarter trailing, 23-13, despite some hard defense and perfect free throw shooting by the Tigers. Ayana Mitchell led the squad with nine points and four rebounds.
• At the second quarter official timeout, Mizzou led 31-17 and 42-21 going into the half.
• LSU began to find its offensive rhythm as they cut Mizzou’s lead to 49-32 coming out of the halftime break to the midway point of the third quarter.
• LSU continued put defensive pressure on Missouri and capitalized on some offensive playmaking to head into the fourth quarter down 52-39 to Mizzou.
• At the fourth quarter media timeout, LSU had closed the gap with Mizzou to 10, 62-52.
• Out of the fourth quarter media timeout with 3:43 left to go in the game, Pointer scored eight unanswered points to close to 62-60 with 1:48 left in the game.
• Missouri’s Amber Smith answered with a basket at 1:18 to push the lead back to 64-60.
• Pointer and Young responded with two more baskets and a free throw to keep LSU in the game over the last minute of the game, swapping points with Missouri.

UP NEXT
LSU will be on the road again taking on Texas A&M on Thursday, January 9 to in College Station. The game will be aired on SECN at 8 p.m. CT and live stats will be available.

Head Coach Nikki Fargas Post Game Quotes

On the deficit being a lot to come back from…
“Well, this game is played for forty minutes, not twenty. We didn’t come with the same intentional play action of guarding them. We gave up 23 points in one quarter and then 27 total in the second half. This team has got to understand that when you’re on the road and you’re in a hostile environment and their facing adversity, you can always count on your defense and board play. I felt like we failed in that area, especially in the first half.”

Lessons learned…
“For this group, it’s a lesson. Through all of your experiences, you want to learn. You want to learn too that when you play in this league and you dig yourself a hole, you can make your own run and come back at it. At one point it was a one-possession game and they were able to knock their free throws down the stretch to continue to solidify the win. The fight of our team in the second half, that is who we are. We got away from that and we’ve got to get back to it and make sure that we stay in tune with playing that type and that style of basketball.”

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