BATON ROUGE, La. — After a rare four-point play from senior Karli Seay towards the end of regulation and a 12-3 dominance in the overtime period, the LSU women’s basketball team completed the 75-66 comeback for the victory over Ole Miss Sunday afternoon inside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
It was the 950th win in program history.
LSU is now 8-7 overall and 6-3 in SEC play, while Ole Miss drops to 7-7 and 1-7.
As the seconds waned in the fourth quarter, Seay hit a three-pointer and was fouled in the process. She would complete the four-point play giving the Tigers a brief lead, 63-62 with 12 seconds left, before Ole Miss sent the game to overtime, knocking down a free throw with 1.3 seconds left in regulation.
Similar to the first meeting between both of these teams, LSU took advantage of numbers down the stretch with three Rebels fouling out. Six different Tigers scored in the extra period to seal the win.
Redshirt senior Faustine Aifuwa had a productive afternoon on the glass, grabbing 16 total rebounds, 10 of those coming on the defensive side of the ball. She filled out the rest of stats line with 17 points, one assist, and one block. With her performance, she notched another double-double, her sixth of the season and the 16th of her career.
Aifuwa is four blocks away from tying former Tiger Julie Gross (178; 1978-80). The 16 rebounds tied her single-game career high.
Senior Khayla Pointer started out slow, but showed some toughness down the stretch, bringing the Tigers within one with 29 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Her stats line consisted of 25 points, matching her season-high, four steals, two assists, and two rebounds.
Senior Awa Trasi continued her effective play from the previous game and collected 13 points and four rebounds. Early in the third quarter, Trasi possessed a tough, physical nature, attacking the basket, which led to three fruitful possessions, culminating in free-throw opportunities.
Even without late-game heroics, Seay had a strong performance collecting 13 points, four rebounds, three steals, and an assist.
LSU head coach Nikki Fargas was sidelined due to contact tracing issues related to an external media obligation. Acting head coach Charlene Thomas-Swinson roamed the sidelines in her absence.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Both teams began with stout defensive sequences, when Trasi got the scoring started for LSU with a jumper to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead.
- Ole Miss went on a 6-2 scoring run to lead LSU 6-4 at the first-quarter timeout.
- Pointer added six points as the quarter went on to try to close the gap for LSU. Ole Miss continued to outscore the Tigers and led 18-12 at the end of the first quarter.
- LSU opened the second quarter with a jumper from Aifuwa. Ole Miss outscored the Tigers 10-2 and led LSU 28-14 with 7:21 left in the quarter.
- Pointer scored five straight for LSU to close the gap. Ole Miss led LSU 28-19 with 5:30 left in the second quarter.
- LSU was able to shrink the lead after Aifuwa added five points of her own down the stretch. Ole Miss led LSU 35-28 at halftime.
- Senior Rakell Spencer scored LSU’s first points to end a two-minute scoring drought to start the third quarter.
- Trasi kept the Tigers in the game through the third-quarter media timeout scoring seven straight points off of aggressive takes to the basket and cashing in at the charity stripe.
- The Tigers found themselves trailing at the end of the third quarter 51-43 after getting outscored 15-14.
- The Tigers trailed 53-46 at the fourth-quarter media timeout.
- The Tigers trailed 56-46 after allowing the Rebels to expand their lead through the second fourth-quarter media timeout.
- Aifuwa notched a double-double after scoring her 10th point to go along with 13 rebounds during LSU’s first possession after the second fourth-quarter media timeout.
- LSU played stingy defense holding the Rebels scoreless until the 4:42 mark.
- The Tigers went on a 7-2 run to close the gap to five and force a Rebels timeout at the 2:28 highlighted by a seven-point surge from Aifuwa.
- The Rebels called a timeout with 29 seconds left after a Pointer and-one closed the gap to one.
- Seay gave the Tigers a 63-62 lead after a clutch four-point play with 11.8 seconds, banking a three-pointer and getting the and-one on the play.
- The Rebels tied the game at 63 to send the game to overtime after a Trasi foul and Mimi Reid only converting one free throw.
- LSU dominated the overtime period leading 72-65 through the first media timeout.
- The Tigers held on through the remainder of overtime to win by a final of 75-66.
Acting Head Coach Charlene Thomas-Swinson Postgame Quotes
On the win being a team effort…
“It’s a group effort. I think that was awesome. You know you can’t script it with what it means for our bench, to give as much as they are. They see the game evolve through their lens and see what we can do to pick a team apart. To hear the comments that were being made, that was an experience to hear the voices. Domonique Davis having the lens of being a point guard, Jailin Cherry saying ‘You have to force Reid left’, or ‘You have to force Nesbitt to go to her left because that’s her weakness.’ It gave us opportunities to generate turnovers that went in our favor and allowed us to score the ball in the second half.”
On the last play…
“That is the irony of it. We went into the timeout talking about getting a quick two. They double-teamed. We knew we were expecting Khayla Pointer to get double-teamed. With that double-team, Karli is wide open standing on the three-point line and the kid runs her down. You just kind of go ‘that wasn’t a part of it, but we’ll take it’.”
On LSU playing well in overtime…
“They know it’s their second chance to truly be able to put the engine in check and be able to bring their best game. I’ll tell you what, we can’t keep going like this. We need to be able to get out to an early start and be able to finish them early.”
Up Next
The Tigers will go to Bryan-College Station on Thursday, February 4 to take on the No. 8-ranked Texas A&M Aggies for the return trip. The matchup will be televised on the SEC Network at 8 p.m. CT. As always, you can listen to the Voice of the Tigers, Patrick Wright, broadcasting on 107.3 FM in Baton Rouge and the LSU Sports Radio Network on LSUsports.net.
(Press release provided by LSU Athletics).