COLLEGE STATION, Texas – With the season beginning to wind down and with only five regular season games remaining, No. 13 LSU (21-4, 8-3 SEC) will be at Texas A&M (17-7, 5-6 SEC) Monday night at 6 p.m. CT in Reed Arena.
LSU did not play on Thursday with its final bye of the season. The Tigers were off on Monday and Tuesday before getting back on the practice floor. After Texas A&M, LSU will face Auburn, Tennessee and Georgia on the road and Kentucky in the regular season finale. LSU is currently by itself in second place in the SEC.
The game will air on the SEC Network with Sam Gore and Steffi Sorenson. Patrick Wright and Shaeeta Williams will call the game on the LSU Sports Radio Network, 107.3 FM in Baton Rouge.
This will be the second time the Tigers and Aggies meet. They played on January 11 and LSU won the game, 87-70. The game was won at the foul line. LSU, who shoots and makes more free throws than any other team in the nation, was 25-32 from the charity stripe. Texas A&M was just 8-12 from the stripe. All five starters for LSU scored in double figures against and Aggies defense that was, at the time, the nations No. 1 ranked scoring defense.
The Tigers have won their past three games and have scored at least 85 points in each of those games. Despite the scoring though, LSU has won those games with improved defense. In all three of those games against Florida, at Vanderbilt and against Alabama, LSU has hit its main defensive goals of holding opponents below 68 points and below 39.9-percent shooting,
“There have been games of late where I have seen progress on the defensive end,” Coach Kim Mulkey said. “I just think that when we can do that, we’re a better team when we can do some things defensively. Hopefully these days we have to work on us this week, it will register. I still think that transition defense can be better. Our half-court defense right now is better than our transition defense. If we can just communicate and talk and help each other and get that area better we’ll be a better team.”
Angel Reese and Aneesah Morrow both have 15 double-doubles this season. They are tied atop the SEC and at No. 6 in the nation. Morrow went over 2,000 career points against Alabama. She is one of four active players and is the only non-senior with over 2,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds. Reese is 43 points shy of reaching that milestone herself. For Reese, another double-double would be her 50th at LSU.
Last-Tear Poa was a spark for LSU off the bench against Alabama and has stepped up her play over the past three games. She started the second half and made plays on both ends of the floor to help LSU erase a 10-point halftime deficit and earn a 19-point win. She took two charges last Sunday to reach 28 on the season.
“She got to start in the second half (against Alabama) and she did some things really, really good defensively that kept her on the floor,” Coach Mulkey said. “That is Poa’s game. When you’re confident you want to stay on that floor and obviously your play dictates if you stay on that floor.”
LSU and Texas A&M are both good rebounding teams. LSU leads the nation with 47.5 rebounds per game while Texas A&M is not far behind at No. 8 with 44.7 rebounds per game. LSU won the rebounding margin by nine the first time the teams matched up. The Tigers are especially dangerous on the offensive glass with 17.6 per game to keep possessions alive and ultimately score second chance points.
The Texas A&M defense is stout. The Aggies are No. 2 in the conference in scoring defense (55.2). They are also second in FG% defense (35.4%) in the SEC. Texas A&M is led by Endyia Rogers and Aicha Coulibaly during league play. Rogers is averaging 15.7 points per game in the SEC and Coulibaly is posting 13.6 points each contest.
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