BATON ROUGE – Mikaylah Williams grabbed a seat alongside her LSU women’s basketball star teammates Flau’jae Johnson and Aneesah Morrow.
Outside of garbage time in nonconference games, No. 4 LSU’s big three all on the bench together doesn’t happen. And them all sitting when the game is still very much up for grabs is a rarity.
Kim Mulkey, after her Tigers’ 64-51 victory over Texas A&M inside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center Sunday night, said “it could’ve been” the first time she’s ran with a lineup that didn’t consist of any of Morrow, Williams and Johnson when the game wasn’t a foregone conclusion.
With 4:30 left in the first half, LSU (21-1, 7-1 SEC) nursed a 11-point lead when Williams drew her second foul and was subbed out of the game. The five on the floor for the Tigers were freshman point guard Jada Richard, junior forward Sa’Myah Smith, sophomore center Aalyah Del Rosario and wings Kailyn Gilbert and Mjracle Sheppard.
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How did the surprising combo do?
The scoring, which the starting group has had its fair share of struggles against A&M and the last couple of games, wasn’t efficient as they went 1-for-10 from the floor. Richard had the lone made field goal during that stretch.
While the group had trouble making shots, it limited the Aggies to rough shooting as well. Texas A&M outscored LSU 9 to 3 over those four-plus minutes but 5 of those points came from the free throw line.
“We kept the lead, we went in the half up five,” Mulkey said. “I didn’t like the last four seconds where Aalyah left her feet and we talked about that with her at halftime.
“You just keep teaching. Whoever is on that floor you just keep teaching.”
Richard converted the one made basket for her team in that stretch. Mulkey said that the reserves were going to get more minutes against A&M after LSU came off the intense loss at South Carolina two days ago. But the freshman guard talked about remaining who she is has been pivotal for her development this season.
“It’s definitely a mental battle,” Richard said. “I stay in the gym and if you stay in the gym, you can be confident in anything you do. Fighting that mental battle of staying myself. Staying confident and whenever I get the opportunity, just try to produce in the best way I can for my team.”
To their teammates, how the lineup performed with neither of the big 3 on the court was encouraging to see.
“I was really happy about Jada,” Johnson said after the game. “She’s so confident in what she do, so we encourage her to shoot the ball. She’s got a clip, she can shoot that thing. We believe in her to be able to make decisions even as a freshman. I’m glad she got those minutes in and she was able to do what she do.
“That’s when people have to step up. I think we had some lapses but that’s expected. Scoring went down a little bit but that’s expected as well. But I think Jada managed the time pretty well.”
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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: Kim Mulkey on LSU’s lineup without big 3 in win over Texas A&M
