Vanderbilt handed LSU its second consecutive loss behind a 32-point performance from Mikayla Blakes and a strong outing from freshman guard Aubrey Galvan. The 65-61 loss to Vanderbilt was LSU’s second loss of the season—and its second consecutive loss against a ranked team.
LSU dominated the first part of the season, regularly scoring over 100 points and beating opponents by sizeable deficits. The thing about that is, LSU hadn’t played a ranked opponent until opening its January schedule with a game against Kentucky. Their non-conference schedule was easy, but that is not an anomaly for Kim Mulkey’s LSU teams. The anomaly is that LSU doesn’t look ready to beat good teams.
After the loss to Vanderbilt, Mulkey didn’t mince her words. “Probably a good thing that we did play that, right?” Mulkey said about her team’s easy scheduling to start the season. “Because if we’d have played anything tougher, we might be sitting here with a lot of losses.”
The losses to Kentucky and Vanderbilt pose the question of whether LSU can compete with the better teams in the country this season. Even though both games were close and the game against Vanderbilt could’ve looked different if LSU had gotten the ball when Mikayla Blakes stepped out of bounds with around 30 seconds left and a 3-point lead for Vanderbilt, LSU should plummet in the rankings after its last two games. It will also take a lot of work to compete with other ranked teams.
SEC play has been a wake-up call for LSU
LSU looked great to start the season. It led all teams in points and rebounds per game, got a lot of production from its bench, and integrated several transfers and freshmen into the system. Starting SEC play with two ranked opponents provided a brutal wake-up call: LSU has a lot to work on if it wants to finish the season with any kind of significant success.
After the loss to Kentucky, Kim Mulkey called out her team’s lack of rebounding. LSU lost the rebounding battle badly and gave up 17 offensive boards. Rebounding wasn’t as much of an issue against Vanderbilt. LSU grabbed 20 more rebounds, but still gave up 14 offensive rebounds. What was even worse was committing a season-high 22 turnovers and allowing Vanderbilt to score 15 points off those mistakes.
LSU also committed 23 fouls and sent Vanderbilt to the free-throw line 26 times for 15 easy points. Blakes got most of those free throws in a true star-level performance. Meanwhile, one of LSU’s biggest stars failed to show up. Flau’jae Johnson finished the game with 0 points on 0-4 shooting, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 turnovers, and 2 fouls.
The good news is that Flau’jae Johnson should bounce back quickly and LSU’s next game isn’t against a ranked opponent. The bad news is that Texas, the second-best team in the country, will be an even bigger challenge than Kentucky and Vanderbilt when they come to LSU on Sunday.