Alexis Morris’ six points was the most worrisome part of the Friday night for LSU, but coach Kim Mulkey waved it off as not much of a concern moving forward to LSU’s 6:30 p.m. game Sunday against Michigan.
A victory would put LSU in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2014 when LSU beat Georgia Tech and West Virginia to advance and play Louisville. The Tigers fell 73-47 to the Cardinals that year.
“As far as the game last night I’m over it,” Morris said Saturday. “I’ve already flushed it down the toilet. Moving forward toward Michigan, I’m going to have to produce more on the offensive end and be solid on defense.”
Mulkey said Morris’ experience meant no coaching input was needed.
“I don’t have to give her a message,” Mulkey said. “Alexis Morris is going to be fine. If you look down the scoring, I’ll take that. You’d love to have four or five scoring double-figures but if you look, 9, 2, 6, 5, 3; nobody was hesitant to shoot it.”
Morris, who entered the game averaging 15.1 points per game, was 0 for 4, three of them 3-pointers, in the first quarter, and didn’t shoot again until the second half. She was 0 for 6 before hitting three straight in a 10-0 LSU run. She capped the run with a nice spin move without the ball off an inbounds play to take the pass and score a bank shot.
“I think she settled. If you go back to the beginning of the game, instead of coming off the on-ball screen and get to that foul line area and shot a mid-range, she was settling for threes,” Mulkey said.
Hawaii coach Laura Beeman said there was no particular plan other than to “get into the gaps” to stop Morris from penetrating.
“We knew that we had to get in gaps because of what Morris could do getting downhill, and you have to pick your poison with a team that is as talented as LSU,” Beeman said. “We knew we weren’t going to stop Reese.”
Morris’s scoring total broke a streak of four consecutive games with at least 21 points. It was not her season-low. She had twice scored two points and once one. She finished with two rebounds, two assists and four steals on Friday.
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