The Lady Tigers passed a big test on the road Thursday night as 6fth ranked LSU defeated 16th ranked Tennessee 89 to 87 on Kailyn Gilbert’s last second circus shot in the lane.
“She’s made several of those shots through the course of the games this year, she made one like that against Washington to win it for us, she was one the we wanted the last shot for,” said LSU Coach Kim Mulkey.
In the first half it didn’t look like LSU would need late-game heroics. The Lady Tigers built an 18-point lead midway through the second quarter, but Tennessee finished the first half strong and were down by just seven points.
The Lady Vols would eventually take a two-point lead with 3:43 seconds left in the game. LSU responded and re-took the lead and grew it to three points with 50 seconds to go.
A three-pointer by Tennessee’s Jewel Spear tied the game with a three-pointer and that set up Gilbert’s dramatic game winning shot as she drove the lane and put up a left-handed scoop shot.
“That’s Kaylin’s shots, people will look at it and say it was a luck shot, I can assure you it wasn’t that’s how she shoots the ball,” Mulkey said.
Gilbert finished with 22 points, and she continues to provide offensive punch off the bench.
Annesah Moorrow had 23 points and 21 rebounds. That’s her 90th double-double of her career. She’s now tied with Tennessee Tech’s Cheryl Taylor on the NCAA career double-double leaders list. Morrow has also surpassed 2,500 points in her career.
Flau’Jae Johnson had 20 points and eight rebounds and played good defense on Tennessee’s top scorer, Jewel Spear, holding her to 25 points.
LSU did an outstanding job taking care of the basketball against a pressing team. The Lady Tigers only turned it over 14 times and protecting the basketball allowed them to get fast break layups.
LSU outscored Tennessee in the paint 60 to 30.
The Lady Tigers will host 14-and-3 Vanderbilt on Monday. The Commodores are 1-and-2 in the SEC, scoring 108 points in a win against Georgia, but they are coming off a loss to Ole Miss where they scored just 59 points Defensively, Vanderbilt is allowing 88 points a game in its three SEC games.
