The LSU Tigers were able to beat the Rice Owls in the first round of the NCAA Tournament women’s division on Friday, but it wasn’t easy and they had quite the scare. With that said, Angel Reese knows very well the team needs to quickly resolve their problems if they want to move further in the competition.
LSU edged out Rice 70-60, but the Owls put up quite the fight and effectively shut down Reese’s scoring in the game.
Angel Reese, LSU Tigers Struggle vs. Rice Owls
The story of the game boiled down to turnovers for the Tigers, as they committed a season-high 24 turnovers. Three players recorded at least five turnovers, led by Reese who had six in the contest.
Rice really focused their defensive strategy on Reese, as they limited her to just 10 points on 1-of-7 shooting. Had it not been for free throws–LSU had 31 attempts from the charity stripe and made 22–Reese and the Tigers wouldn’t have survived the battle.
Reese still had a double-double as she tallied 19 rebounds, but her offensive production really hurt the Tigers in what many expected would have been an easy win for them.
After the game, Reese highlighted that there’s plenty to learn for them after the showdown. Now, they have t review it and ensure they won’t commit the same mistakes again.
“Of course, we have to clean that up. We’ll get back in the lab, figure out what we messed up on in film, and move onto the next game,” Reese said on the challenge that awaits LSU now as they move on to the next round of the NCAA Tournament, via Tyler Harden of LSU Reveille.
It remains to be seen how the Tigers will try to solve the turnover issues, especially after the Owls provided a blueprint on how to slow them down. LSU faces the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders next, a team that upset Louisville in the opening round.
Kim Mulkey Not Concerned About LSU Tigers, Angel Reese
For what it’s worth, it doesn’t look like that LSU Tigers head coach Kim Mulkey is overly concerned with their performance.
While she admitted that it was an ugly game, the fact of the matter is they still won. For her, winning is the most important thing. Besides, there are positives to take from a team that was able to win even in an ugly game.
“That was an ugly basketball game, but we won. You got to keep perspective,” Mulkey highlighted, via Chessa Bouche of BR Proud.
Mulkey also made sure to point out all the good things they did instead of focusing on the negative stuff.
“To emphasize the good things, we did hold them to below 39, 9 from the field,” Mulkey shared through the team’s website. “You’re going to win games when you do that. We didn’t shoot it bad with the exception of a couple of players. I thought the other players had good shooting percentages in the shots that they took. I thought we got to the foul line, like we have all year.”
Of course Mulkey understands that there’s clearly work that needs to be done. Nonetheless, she’s remaining confident about Reese and the Tigers.
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