Three quick takeaways from the LSU women’s basketball team’s first-round NCAA tournament victory over Hawaii on Friday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
1. WHAT WE LEARNED
The sluggish way LSU played in the second half of their Southeastern Conference tournament loss to Tennessee carried over to the Tigers’ NCAA tournament opener against Hawaii. LSU allowed a completely outmanned opponent to hang around, at one point getting within nine points of the Tigers early in the third quarter before LSU pulled away for the 73-50 victory. LSU’s defense was good, but against a better opponent the Tigers would have been on upset alert.
2. TRENDING NOW
LSU’s one-woman offense. That woman would be Angel Reese, who overcame a momentarily scary-looking turned ankle late in the second quarter to do typical Reese things. She posted her 29th double-double with 34 points and 15 rebounds. No other LSU player reached double-figures in scoring until the fourth quarter. That’s a serious red flag for the Tigers, who aside from Reese (she shot 13 of 20 from the field) were a combined 14 of 42 .
3. FINAL THOUGHTS
The name of the NCAA tournament game is of course three words: survive and advance. The Tigers did that, and are now on to the second round Sunday to face Michigan, which beat UNLV 71-59 in Friday’s first game here. The Wolverines have enough length and toughness to beat LSU if the Tigers don’t play well. A tough test awaits as LSU tries to get to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2014.
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