BATON ROUGE — When the game rolled over to the fourth quarter, it looked like No. 7 LSU women’s basketball had already buried Tulane, evident by a 22-point advantage.
But the Green Wave weren’t done yet. They proceeded to go on a 14-run to cut the deficit to single digits with 4:06 remaining, the closest they had been since the opening quarter.
LSU coach Kim Mulkey and the Tigers turned to their best player to pull them out of their funk. Flau’jae Johnson answered the call, snapping LSU’s scoreless drought, scoring back-to-back buckets to thwart Tulane’s last-ditch run as LSU held on 85-74 Wednesday night inside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
It was second scare this early nonconference slate the Tigers (6-0) had to escape as Murray State took a lead against LSU into the fourth quarter last Friday night.
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LSU women’s basketball attacked the basket with ease vs Tulane
It was evident from the tip what Mulkey wanted her LSU players to do against Tulane. The Tigers pushed the ball up the floor after each Green Wave miss and that strategy paid immediate dividends as 12 of the first 15 points they scored came off layups in the paint.
Morrow fed off LSU’s pace early, scoring her first 9 points in the lane as her teammates found her off dribble penetration and fastbreak chances. Morrow finished with 21 points and 15 rebounds.
LSU scored 46 points inside the lane against the Green Wave.
Jersey Wolfenbarger getting more comfortable at the post for Kim Mulkey
During her time at Arkansas, Wolfenbarger was a combo forward who could and would step out to the perimeter a lot. But that was Mike Neighbors’ system.
In Mulkey’s system, due to her 6-foot-4 size, Wolfenbarger has played almost exclusively on the low block and, after a handful of games, it seems like the position is coming easier to her now. Some credit belongs to LSU’s guards, who has been giving her the ball in scoring position. And Wolfenbarger has been finishing at a high clip the last two games.
By halftime in 11 minutes of playing time, Wolfenbarger already surpassed her season-high total in points with 13 on 6-of-8 shooting.
She finished with 15 points.
Tulane’s Victoria Keenan exposes LSU women’s basketball’s perimeter defensive woes
Tulane was able to stay within somewhat striking distance of LSU for as long as it did because of the lights-out shooting from senior guard Victoria Keenan.
She came into Wednesday’s game at LSU hitting 3s at a 50% rate. Her shooting well wouldn’t catch LSU off guard. It was defensive breakdowns, not switching screens, not finding Keenan in transition which allowed her the space to make seven of her first eight 3s, all coming in the first half.
Keenan had 21 points by halftime and Mulkey put Johnson on her in the second half and she shut her down. Keenan ended the night with 21 points.
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Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: LSU women’s basketball fends off Tulane in sixth straight win
