With added motivation, LSU women's basketball throttles Charlotte

With some extra motivation from Tik Tok videos Charlotte players posted, LSU beat Charlotte, 117-59, on Wednesday night inside the PMAC, improving to 4-0 on the season as the No. 5 ranked team in the country.

In the first half, LSU took charge of Charlotte and didn’t hold back. LSU knocked down eight threes while the 49ers were one-for-19. Charlotte shot nearly 14 percent from the field to LSU’s 54 percent. The Tigers went on a 14-0 run to extend their advantage, taking a 45-point lead into the half. 

In the second half, the Tigers built on their first-half momentum, further extending their lead. LSU shot 15-of-34 (44.1%) from the floor and a solid 24-of-29 (82.8%) from the free throw line to extend the lead to 58.

Kate Koval earned a double double with 10 points and 12 rebounds. 

LSU had seven players in double figures alongside Koval, with MiLaysia Fulwiley leading the Tigers with 22 points on eight-of-11 shooting, five three-pointers and three steals. MiKaylah Williams earned a season high of 18 points on five-of-seven shooting along with six rebounds from the offensive board. Flau’Jae Johnson had 16 points and Amiya Joyner had 15 points. Grace Knox and ZaKiyah Johnson both earned 10 points.

Princess Anderson was the leading scorer for the 49ers, finishing with 27 points on 9-of-24 shooting. 

The Tigers are back in action on Monday, Nov. 17 as they go on the road to face Tulane. The game will tip off at 6:00 p.m. CT inside the Avron B. Fogelman Arena. 

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LSU Postgame quotes

MiLaysia Fulwiley

On her shooting…

“I mean, I’m a great driver, so I think that opens up my shot, and it’s all about being confident. I’m a very confident player, and I know it’s going in. I just keep letting it fly.”

On getting the crowd going with her highlights…

“It feels great. When you can get the crowd going like that, it kind of motivates you to keep going. Just to hear how everybody was so excited for me, it made me feel like I picked the right school, and I was just happy.”

Kate Koval

On back to back double doubles…

Yeah, I feel like that’s something Coach has been talking about and preaching, getting those rebounds and rebounding out of your area. That’s something I really focused on starting in the summer. I watched a lot of film to see the positioning I need to be in to get those boards. So I’m just continuing to work on that and making it a goal every single game.”

On the unselfishness of this team…

“I feel like our team is definitely special in that way. We truly enjoy playing with each other and enjoy each other off the court, too. You can see our chemistry. Everybody eats on this team, everybody gets a touch. If you double the post players, we’ve got amazing shooters. You stop our shooters and drivers, we’ve got great post play. We all play off each other.”

Kim Mulkey

On the balance of this roster…

“I’ve been doing this almost 40 years. I can’t even think of a time I’ve had balance like that. I probably have never substituted this confidently, even in non-conference play. What dictates that is what goes on in practice every day. You show me in practice. I think our practices are extremely tough, they’re fighting for playing time. I tell them, “Don’t worry about who’s starting. Make me play you.” Well, they’re all making me play them.”

On the defensive effort…

Well, let me say this, we had too many technicals. But I want to give you a little background. They took it real personal with all the stuff that was on social media, and I’ll leave it at that. They were fired up.

With that many technicals, I usually lose it or sit you, but it was bulletin-board material, and it fired them up. That’s too many technicals, if you’re going to play great teams, you can’t have that, but I wasn’t surprised.

Back to your question on defense: we’re getting better. Straight-line drives are always going to be a problem because the game has so many one-on-one players. But I thought there were moments with certain groups together where, when we got beat, a second defender helped, and then another helped the helper. I thought we got a little sloppy late in the fourth quarter, but for the most part, we did good things.

On the videos Charlotte players made before this game…

“I think we probably laughed about it. I probably trash-talked and cut up with them — we do what we do. We have personalities. But it wasn’t like that was the most important thing in the scouting report. They were all aware of it.”

On the offense’s success…

“We can score the ball at all positions. I know Jada and KG were 0-for from the field, but they can score too. I just want to keep focusing on our defense and rebounding.

We’re not going to have that one dominant rebounder like we’ve had before, so it doesn’t matter who gets it, give me 8, 9, 10 from the guards, 5 or 6 from others. I see Kate had 12. A couple more were close to double figures. Like I said, we can score, let’s just get better defensively.”

On Kate’s night…

“I’ve seen it from Kate since practice started. She doesn’t get too high or too low, we like to tease her and call her Grandma. She keeps everything together and helps her teammates.

She didn’t have many shot attempts, so we challenged her, go to the boards. Rebound out of your area, go get balls, hang on to them. She had a double-double and probably should’ve had more shot attempts. I could’ve called more quick-hitters, but I just let us play tonight.”

On Jada Richard’s struggles…

“You don’t say a whole lot. Jada’s one of the better shooters we have. If I have a conversation with her, and I don’t know that I will anytime soon, she’s doing fine. She’s probably down right now because she didn’t score a field goal, but one of her better games was when she had seven assists.

Just manage the game. We know you can shoot. Be the quarterback. Don’t try to be someone you’re not. You’ve earned the right to start — I’m not taking you out because you went 0-for-8. Just be you.

I told her, don’t let missed shots affect the other parts of your game. Don’t let it affect your defense or the way you present yourself as a leader.”