The game-ending horn sounded as LSU first-year women’s head basketball coach Kim Mulkey, in her usual baseball catcher’s crouch, bowed her head and exhaled.
“I was tired,” Mulkey said.
She may have even glanced at the scoreboard exiting the Pete Maravich Assembly Center court, just to confirm her third-seeded Tigers somehow beat 14th seeded Jackson State 83-77 in an NCAA tournament first-round sub-regional game Saturday.
Because with 4:54 left to play, her team was trailing by 10 points against the SWAC regular-season and the tournament champions who were almost to the finish line to become the first SWAC women’s team to ever win an NCAA tournament game.
But everything LSU did wrong in roughly the first 35 minutes of a battle royal in which JSU played like a team wanting to extend its 21-game winning streak, it flipped into a 19-3 closing run keyed by the brilliance of graduate student All-American guard Khayla Pointer who had hand in 14 of those points.
In LSU’s closing burst she scored 8 points on 2 of 3 field goals (including a 3-pointer) and 3 of 3 free throws, dealt 3 assists, grabbed 3 rebounds and 2 steals.
And when it came time to deliver LSU’s biggest shot of the game with the score tied 77-77, she never hesitated to pull the trigger on a successful 3-pointer for an 80-77 lead with 49 seconds left.
“I work on that shot every single day before and after practice,” said Pointer, who finished with 26 points, 8 assists, 9 rebounds and 4 steals. “When the ball came around, I just shot it with confidence. I didn’t think twice about it.”
Three free throws by LSU redshirt junior guard Alexis Morris, playing in her first game since straining knee ligaments four weeks ago, sealed the win that sent the 26-5 Tigers into Monday’s second round game.
LSU will play No. 6 seed Ohio State (24-6) at 7 p.m. for the right to advance to the Sweet 16 in the Spokane Regional. The Buckeyes pulled away late in a hard-fought 63-56 victory over No. 11 seed Missouri State in Saturday’s first game.
It didn't it look like there would be a next game for LSU. A 17-point LSU lead during the third quarter evaporated in just under eight minutes in a 24-5 Jackson State run that lifted JSU from a 47-30 deficit to a 54-52 lead with 1:56 left in the third quarter.
Though LSU didn’t play well in the first half, a 10-0 burst fueled by 8 of senior guard Jalin Cherry’s game-total 24 points jettisoned the hometown Tigers to 41-28 halftime lead. When LSU’s advantage ballooned to 17 in the first 76 seconds of the third quarter, it seemed like a blowout was on the horizon.
Until proud JSU suddenly ignited. Five different players scored in a run that included 3 3-pointers and 6 of 6 free throws as JSU headed to the fourth quarter with a 58-57 edge.
And just to prove JSU’s 30-point third quarter wasn’t a fluke – it was the first time this season LSU had allowed 30 points in a quarter – JSU outscored LSU 16-7 in the first five minutes of the final period.
It forced Mulkey to do something somewhat out of her wheelhouse.
“We went to full-court pressing (defensively),” she said. “We haven’t had to do that much this year. Our kids kept playing hard. We happened to get some steals and change the momentum.”
Jackson State’s unexpectedly hot 3-point shooting – it made 8 of 15 after entering the game averaging 4.2 made 3’s – cooled. LSU finally shut down JSU guard Mya Crump, who led her team with 21 points. JSU closed the game missing 8 of its last 9 field goal attempts while LSU made its final 5 of 6.
“I’m extremely proud of how hard our team fought,” said Jackson State coach Tomeka Reed, whose team finished 23-7 after starting the season 2-6. “They never gave up, they never stopped believing. We didn’t give our best showing in the first half. We didn’t get some calls we thought we should have, but if we make free throws it’s a different ballgame.”
Maybe so. But JSU couldn't stop LSU once its comeback got rolling, led by Pointer.
"We just were relentless," Pointer said, "We weren't ready to go home. You just stay confident. You know, we have a lot of time in the game and the game is not over until that horn sounds. And we just kept going at it and kept going at it and made a run and we were able to take the lead and we just kind of held onto it."
