LSU women’s basketball at South Carolina: Score prediction, scouting report for top-5 game

BATON ROUGE — When LSU women’s basketball and Kim Mulkey take the floor to take on Dawn Staley and South Carolina inside Colonial Life Arena, it’ll be a matchup between the last two NCAA champions.

Thanks to the shear amount of success the two titans of women’s basketball have seen the last several years, this budding rivalry gets a highly anticipated renewal Thursday night (7 p.m. CT, ESPN). ESPN’s College Gameday is hitting the road for the first time this basketball season and opens its roadshow at the LSU-South Carolina game.

The driver’s seat in the Southeastern Conference standings will go to the victor of the top-4 showdown. No. 4 LSU (20-0, 5-0 SEC) is one of two undefeated teams left along with No. 1 UCLA, who beat South Carolina earlier this season.

No. 2 South Carolina (18-1, 6-0) is coming off a shellacking of No. 13 Oklahoma, 101-60, at home, marking one of the largest wins over a ranked opponent in program history.

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Dawn Staley, South Carolina Gamecocks thriving in stretch of ranked opponents

LSU is the fourth straight game where the Gamecocks are facing a ranked team and they’ll one more after Thursday’s game when they travel to No. 17 Tennessee on Monday night.

But against now No. 7 Texas, No. 19 Alabama and No. 15 Oklahoma, South Carolina’s average margin of victory is 25 points. Staley’s team was not tested in either of those games, jumping out to big leads early.

What LSU will present to the Gamecocks will be different from most of the other ranked opponents they have seen with stars Flau’jae Johnson, Aneesah Morrow and Mikaylah Williams but on the road, the onus will fall on the Tigers to find a way to bring a different result.

Kim Mulkey, LSU women’s basketball aim to get over hump

The Tigers and Gamecocks played twice last season, once in Baton Rouge and the other in a fever pitch SEC Tournament championship game that featured plenty of shoving and a melee, and both games were decided by less than 10 points.

But the last time a top-5 LSU team made its way to Columbia two season ago, it got ran off the court on Super Bowl Sunday in a 24-point blowout loss. That team did however go on to win a national title.

South Carolina has won 68 straight games at home and it may be asking too much for this Tigers team to pull off the unthinkable but how they can do offensively will challenge the Gamecocks.

LSU-South Carolina will come down to defense

Mulkey and LSU boast a top-20 defensive nationally in field goal percentage, allowing teams to make just 35% of their shots, which ranks 14th best in women’s basketball. Staley and South Carolina are statistically better, forcing teams to shoot just 34.2% from the floor.

Opponents have been shooting the ball better against LSU in conference play at 41.2%. South Carolina has actually improved their defensive efficiency in league play, limiting teams to 33.3% shooting percentage.

This game will come down to which team’s defense can alter shots and make the other offense work for looks. South Carolina’s guard have been susceptible at times to ball screens and pick-and-rolls so Williams and Johnson will need to hit open looks when they get them.

For LSU, teams have gotten into lane with ease in SEC play whether it be in halfcourt offense or transition. Mulkey’s team must clean up transition defense issues as South Carolina likes to run and will need to find stops in the paint.