No. 7 LSU Rolls Past Texas Southern, 106-47

BATON ROUGE — The No. 7 LSU women’s basketball team rolled past Texas Southern, 106-47, on Monday night inside the Pete Maravich Center in its fourth 100-point game of the season.

Falu’Jae Johnson led the Tigers in her second straight 17-point performance. The Sophomore added 8 rebounds and 5 steals. Johnson dropped 17 and 11 on Friday night against Southeastern in LSU’s 73-50 win in Hammond.

Four other Tigers reached double figures as LSU shot 48-percent from the field. Annessah Morrow had 17 points and accounted for 7 of LSU’s, season high, 22 steals. Hailey Van Lith scored 16 points for the first time while wearing the purple and gold.

Freshman Mikaylah Williams earned 14 points with four threes in her fifth straight game in double figures. Aalyah Del Rosario also scored 10 points for the first time in her collegiate career. Every freshman scored and all Tigers that saw the court earned points.

LSU went 25-31 (80.6-percent) from the charity stripe for its most free throws in any game this season. Last-Tear Poa (4-5) and Del Rosario (4-4) scored four from the line while Johnson (3-3), Van Lith (3-3), Williams (2-2), and Morrow (1-1) were all perfect from the line.

The home team scored 48 points off turnovers and 60 points came from within the paint. LSU out-rebounded TSU 49-33 and only allowed 6 points on fast breaks while just nine came from turnovers.

Taniya Lawson and Daeja Holmes led Texas Southern with 11 points each. Jaida Belton led her squad on the glass with 7 rebounds. Four TSU Tigers fouled out in the fourth quarter. TSU went 33-percent from the field and was 3-18 from beyond the arc.

LSU will spend its Thanksgiving break at the Cayman Island Classic with games against Niagara on Friday and against Virginia on Saturday. Friday’s game will be at 12:30 p.m. CT and Saturday’s contest is slated for 4:00 p.m. CT. All games will be played in George Town, Cayman Islands at the John Gray Gymnasium and streamed on FloHoops.

After TSU took a 4-2 lead to start the game a Williams triple sparked a 5-0 LSU run. Galban tied things back up at 7 with a three of her own at the seven minute mark. LSU came out of the media timeout on an 8-0 run that was capped off by a coast-to-coast, and-one finish from Van Lith. Van Lith and Johnson led the Tigers as they combined for 15 to give LSU a 26-11 lead after the opening ten minutes.

LSU took a 19-point lead as it forced turnover number 15 through the first four minutes of the second quarter. Through the first five minutes of the quarter Johnson and Morrow had accumulated 8 of the Tigers’ 10 second quarter points. LSU held TSU scoreless for the final three minutes of the second quarter as it ended on a 15-1 run to take a 31-point lead into the break.

Van Lith led all scorers in the first 20 minutes with 12. The transfer was 4-8 from the field, 1-1 from three, and 3-3 from the foul line. Johnson added 11 and led the team off the glass with 5. Morrow was the third Tiger to reach double figures in the opening half with 10. Morrow also added 6 steals in her 18 minutes of action in the first half. LSU earned 15 steals as a team.

TSU had 22 turnovers in the first half and no players with more than 5 points. Belton and Galban combined for 10 of TSU’s 18 first half points. Each player had 5.

After trading buckets for the opening two minutes of the third quarter, LSU went on a 11-0 run to push its lead past 40. Williams hit back-to-back threes before Lawson snapped the streak with TSU’s third three-pointer of the night. LSU held TSU without a field goal for over three minutes in the back half of the third quarter. Williams scored 9 in the third to bring her total to 14 and Del Rosario reached 8 points for the first time in her career. LSU went into the final quarter with a 85-31 advantage.

LSU opened the final quarter similar to the third as it traded field goals with TSU in the opening two minutes. TSU called a timeout with three minutes remaining as LSU broke past the century mark off two made free throws from Del Rosario. Izzy Besselman and Del Rosario made more free throws late to secure the 59-point victory.

(Release via LSU Athletics)

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