BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — With skillful scorers Flau’jae Johnson and Mikaylah Williams leading the way, LSU was scoring with such ease that Texas Tech coach Krista Gerlich told to her players that their best defense might be a slower offense.
The Lady Raiders, who hang their hat on a pressing defense that aims to defend the entire court for as close to 40 minutes as possible, hadn’t given as many as 85 points all season. But in the second round of March Madness, they found themselves on track to give up 100 to a high-flying Tigers team that already had hit that mark a record-tying 15 times this season.
“There was a time in the third quarter that we called a timeout and said, ‘If you don’t want them to hang 100 on you, you’ve got to quit shooting it so quickly,’” Gerlich said after No. 2 seed LSU’s NCAA record-setting 101-47 victory over Tech on Sunday.
Gerlich said the Tech had to limit LSU’s possessions “to keep them from scoring the ball because they can score it so well.”
LSU has now scored 100 points 16 times this season — something never done before in women’s Division I basketball. Long Beach State did it 15 times in the 1986-87 season, and their record stood until this weekend.
The LSU fans packing the Pete Maravich Assembly Center were so delighted by the record that when guard Jada Richard hit a 3 to put LSU past the 100-point mark, they erupted as if she’d hit a game-winning shot.
Richard said she wasn’t aware of her basket’s significance when she let it go.
“When I hit the 3, I was wondering why everybody was so loud,” Richard said. “I was so confused.”
Setting that record against a defense-oriented team like Tech during March Madness is “a testament to our offensive ability,” Richard said.
Williams and Johnson each scored 24 points in the game in dynamic fashion, hitting 3’s, mid-range jumpers, on the break of on deft drives through traffic in the paint.
“Obviously, as a basketball player and just as a little girl growing up watching basketball, it’s everybody’s dream to have their name in history books,” Williams said. “It’s truly a good feeling and a blessing to even be able to do this and show our talents on the biggest stage.”
“It’s incredible the type of players they have and how quickly they can move the ball up the floor,” Gerlich said. “When you try to put it in perspective what they’re doing, it’s incredible to watch and it’s very difficult to defend and you have to try to fiend ways to pick your poison.”
LSU opened the NCAA Tournament with a 116-58 demolition of 15th seed Jacksonville.
Kim Mulkey, a Hall of Fame coach with four national titles to her name — three at Baylor and one at LSU — is renowned for her emphasis on defense and rebounding.
Now, she’s the coach of a team that holds a record associated with scoring, but doesn’t sound inclined to celebrate it too much.
“I don’t think one thing about it. That is not something when I’m in my rocking chair I’m going to tell the grandkids,” Mulkey said. “I’ll forget it. But I won’t forget those national championships, those conference championships. I won’t forget those kids that played for me.
“Really, what does it mean?” Mulkey continued, referring to the record. “It means I got to coach some talented (players). It means we played some sorry teams and scored it. We played some good teams and scored it.”
Scoring records, she added, is “just never a goal of ours.”
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