Flau'jae Johnson drops harsh take on LSU's narrow win vs. Vanderbilt
01/14/2025 09:41 AM
Flau'jae Johnson delivered a strong performance in the fourth quarter to lead No. 5 LSU women's basketball to an 83-77 win over Vanderbilt on Monday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Despite the win, Johnson didn't shy away from critiquing her team's effort.
"We should have started better today, for sure," Johnson said, as reported by Reed Darcy of The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate. "But this is the SEC. Every game is gonna be a grind, but we made the game harder than it had to be."
LSU (19-0, 4-0 SEC) found itself trailing by three points early in the fourth quarter. Johnson, who had scored 14 points through three quarters, stepped up, scoring 11 of her game-high 25 points in the final period. Her clutch play, including two critical layups in the final minutes, helped the Tigers regain the lead and hold off the Commodores.
Senior forward Aneesah Morrow and sophomore Mikaylah Williams also played crucial roles in the win. Morrow, who recorded 23 points and 15 rebounds, reached an historic milestone, becoming just the eighth player in NCAA women's basketball history with 2,500 career points and 1,500 rebounds, as reported by Cory Diaz of the The Daily Advertiser. Williams added 20 points, including 11 in a dominant third-quarter stretch that kept LSU within striking distance.
Junior forward Sa'Myah Smith returned to the starting lineup after seven games, contributing on both ends with four points, seven rebounds and four blocks.
LSU women’s basketball struggles with consistency against Commodores
The Tigers struggled to find consistency early, trailing multiple times and never leading by more than four points in the fourth quarter. Johnson's late-game heroics ensured the win, but LSU head coach Kim Mulkey will likely emphasize a stronger start in future games, referring to the matchup against Vanderbilt as "a dogfight."
“It was a dogfight,” Mulkey said. “What made it a dogfight? Well, it was putting them at the foul line 22 times and doing it early, missing shots from us. But if you look at each quarter, we did not shoot the ball bad each quarter. We shot the ball significantly more than they did. They just had efficient offense.”
With the win, LSU extended its season-opening winning streak to 19 games. Vanderbilt's Zanai Jones led the Commodores with 21 points.
LSU now prepares for its next game, facing Arkansas on Thursday.
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