LSU Falls At Arkansas, 90-76

Photo By: LSUsports.net

Da Boot Sports
1/27/2022
LSU Sports Information
By: LSU Staff


   FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The LSU Women’s Basketball team dropped its second game in a row, falling to Arkansas in Bud Walton Arena Thursday night, 90-76.
   “I just thought we didn’t shoot the ball well,” said LSU Head Coach Kim Mulkey. “They were sagging in the paint. It wasn’t like Florida where they were up in us and really guarding us hard. We had some really easy, good looks that we normally make and we just didn’t make them.”
   The Tigers fell to 17-4 and 5-3 in the SEC and Arkansas improved to 14-6 and 4-3 in the conference.
   Alexis Morris led LSU with 22 points, all of which came in the second half. Autumn Newby had 15 points and also led the Tigers with 9 rebounds.
   Khayla Pointer recorded 5 rebounds as she reached 500 in her career. She is the only player in program history to have 1,500 points, 500 assists and 500 rebounds. She also had 13 points Thursday night.
   Amber Ramirez finished with a game-high 25 points, making 5 threes, and Samara Spencer had 20 for the Razorbacks as did Makayla Daniels. Arkansas hit 13 threes and shot 52-percent from beyond the arc.
   LSU turned the ball over 16 times and Arkansas scored 20 points off of turnovers.
   The Tigers return to the PMAC this Sunday to take on the Kentucky Wildcats at 1 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on SEC Network. 
   Arkansas started the game with the first points before Jailin Cherry got LSU on the board with an 18-foot pull-up jumper. Pointer found Newby on a pick-and-roll with 5:50 left in the first quarter to give LSU its first lead of the game, 6-5, but the Razorbacks scored the next five. Out of the media timeout, Cherry hit her second pull-up jumper to tie the game at 10. After Cherry and Newby scored LSU’s first 10, Ryann Payne gave LSU a one-point lead with a free-throw and then Hannah Gusters got involved, but Arkansas’ Daniels responded with a three to tie it then Amber Ramirez hit a trey to take the lead back. Payne made her first basket and LSU trailed, 16-15 after one quarter.
   After going scoreless and 0-2 in the first quarter, Pointer hit her first shot attempt of the second quarter to give LSU a 17-16 lead. Arkansas took the lead back on the next possession and then hit its fourth and fifth threes to go up, 24-17. Payne ended the run with a jumper from the right baseline, but Arkansas came back down the court and sank its third three in a row and LSU called timeout.
   Ramirez pulled up from 20 for Arkansas to go up by 10 and then the Razorbacks scored on a fast-break off of LSU’s eighth turnover to go up 31-19 and LSU took another timeout at the 4:48 mark. LSU went to a small, four-guard lineup out of the timeout. Faustine Aifuwa, the only LSU big in the game, scored on the Tigers’ first possession with the small lineup. Awa Trasi soon replaced Cherry in the game as LSU went with a bit more size. Pointer was called for an offensive foul, her second personal, and Cherry replaced her and promptly hit a shot. Aifuwa picked up her second with 1:24 left in the half and was replaced by Newby who made a nice move in the post to score and make it 37-27 on her first offensive possession back in, but LSU ultimately went into the half trailing, 39-28, its largest halftime deficit this season.
   Arkansas made six threes in the first half and shot 40-percent from beyond the arc compared to no made threes by LSU. The Razorbacks scored 11 points off of 11 LSU turnovers.
   Alexis Morris got her first points of the game, scoring the first four points of the half, but Ramirez responded with two straight threes. The teams went back and forth as LSU was unable to reduce the lead by much and Arkansas was able to extend it. Arkansas led 48-40 at the media timeout. Ramirez kept the hot hand for the Razorbacks and put them up 56-44 with her fifth made three with 3:34 left in the quarter. With LSU on a scoring drought, Arkansas finished the quarter on a 12-1 run to go up 65-45 as the Tigers didn’t score for the final 2:49 of the third.
   Pointer hit LSU’s first three-pointer with 3:40 left in the game to reduce the deficit to 17 points, but LSU never strung a run together to threaten the lead Arkansas had built.

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