South Carolina women's basketball is preparing to try and extend its win streak over LSU to 18-consecutive victories this Saturday. The No. 3 Gamecocks travel to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to take on the No. 6 Tigers at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The Daily Gamecock spoke to The Reveille senior sports reporter Tre Allen about the upcoming matchup. The game will tip off at 8:30 p.m. and will be broadcast on ABC.
The Daily Gamecock: How would you define LSU's identity so far this season, and how do you think it'll combat with South Carolina this Saturday?
Allen: "I think a lot of it has to do with trust in depth, honestly. You look at Kim Mulkey's scheme in the past, her benches are tight. She usually goes, at max, seven players, eight, especially in a big game like this. I feel like now with a team like LSU this year, with all the minutes being given to the younger players throughout the season, she can go bring in a whole new five off the bench if she really wants to."
"I think depth and toughness in general. Everything starts with defense. You're going to see them go on the floor, take charges ... they're gonna clog up the paint, they're gonna make shots harder. She's not really worried about how much (their opponent) scores, it's how they score. Late in the shot clock, she's living with that. No wide open shots, no breakdowns, that's all the stuff that drives her crazy."
"I think she can ride with at least ten players on the court, and that gives her a lot more options for a game like South Carolina, who can punch you in the mouth as soon as the game starts."
How has (junior guard) MiLaysia Fulwiley been a contributor for LSU this season, and do you expect her to turn it on against her former team?
"South Carolina fans were on her head. I think there's so much that plays into all of it. She's wild, but that's just who she is. You get to live with it and how she plays and how she facilitates her game. I think Kim wants her to be more of a point guard-heavy player, when honestly, she's a scorer. She goes downhill, she likes to shoot the ball ... Having Kim trying to teach her to play more traditional point guard, it definitely does help, but I don't think that's who she is sometimes.
"I think her strengths come from energy alone. Anytime she steps on the court, Kim is looking to see how she can change the game. If the team is playing slow, or there's someone giving LSU a problem on offense, MiLaysia is going to go in and press her 94 feet, pick her pocket. I think she leads the SEC in steals ... What I've seen from her is that she's willing to do anything. I know everyone wants to see the points, everyone wants to see her do all the behind-the-back, you know crazy stuff. She can score 2 points and still impact the game if she scored 20 points in the same way, in my opinion. I think when she gets on the court on defense, everything gets bottled up, it gets locked down. On offense, she's changing the pace, she's pushing the ball, I see the vision, she's trying to find her teammates open, get the big down the court ... She's one of those players that when you watch college football it says 'Impact Player' on it, she's the first one that pops up for LSU because she can change the entire focus of the game."
South Carolina and LSU are two of the top-three scoring teams in the country. When you have two teams that can run their opponent out of the gym, what do you think LSU will call on down the stretch to ensure that they're not the team that gets pulled away from in the fourth quarter?
"I think you've go to start getting the ball inside, pretty easily. I think they like to settle for shots, occasionally. The 3-pointers look nice, the mid ranges looks nice, but they have look best when they're struggling, just keep it simple, when they go down to (freshman forward) Grace Knox, (sophomore forward) Kate Koval or (senior forward) Amiya Joyner, their forwards, it forces the defense to collapse ... They're able to get downhill, they're able to just cause havoc for South Carolina's interior that the outside has to come down and help off, off of (junior guard Mikaylah Williams) or MiLaysia or whoever is out there."
"I think if they want to get back in this game, obviously it starts on defense. Obviously, no lazy stuff, rebound — the amount of times that (Kim) has emphasized rebounding as a whole as a team... If you cannot secure the rebound, it's second chance points, it's more time coming off the clock."
Of the team's last five meetings, the closest result came in Baton Rouge in 2024. How big of an impact do you think it'll be that this game is in Baton Rouge?
"The amount of pressure they put on a team, it just changes the whole game. When they played Texas here, it felt like everything they did, it was a crowd pop ... (Sophomore forward Joyce Edwards), she's still technically young, and so hopefully — it can cause some mistakes with the young players, but I mean it's sold out already, I already heard about. It it'll be packed. It'll be a primetime, nighttime game, so I really do think the crowd is going to help a lot ... They already play pretty aggressive on defense anyway, but now you're gonna have 12,000 people screaming in your ear on top of that."
When people look back at this game come March Madness, what do you think this game will have revealed about LSU?
"When they hit those first two SEC games, which were both back-to-back losses, everybody was kind of hitting the emergency button early saying 'They can't play anybody,' which, both of those games, they lost by close, they didn't get blown out; they lost by a total of, I think, 6 points. So everybody was so quick to hit the panic button, that when somehow they can actually beat Texas once, Oklahoma and Alabama, they kind of started getting that, 'Okay, you're contenders' reputation, but now, it's kind of gone back down because not only have you not beaten South Carolina, but it's been this way for a long, long time."
"Overall, winning, obviously, says you can finally compete with those elite programs. Obviously LSU is an elite program. If you've won a national championship in the last five years, you deserve to be on a pedestal, but it always feels like a tier between South Carolina and UConn. That's what it feels like, it always feels like a big jump. So I think if they win, by however much, it puts them in 'Okay, these girls can compete for a national championship, they can win it, not just compete, they can win it.' Because when you're playing against a talented team, a great coach, which is half the battle ... It's going to help them a lot in terms of just morale. I'm sure they already know they can beat anybody. I'm just sure that's who they are as athletes, but now, beating a top-three team who's beaten you for 17-straight times, that alone is going to just reset the whole button on 'We don't play nobody, we can't beat nobody.'"
Score prediction for the game?
"I think South Carolina will put LSU in a position to have to come back ... I do think if there's anytime for a big game from her, MiLaysia, it's this week. She does everything well on defense at least, so she's gonna be big part in that just to limit whoever is causing havoc for South Carolina."
"I do think South Carolina wins. I think it is close. It pains me to say it ... I think South Carolina wins. I'm going to go 72-68. I just think that LSU has some stretches where they can kind of beat themselves up, turnovers, forcing passes, bad shots, early shots like I said earlier, and those are possessions you can't really get back all the time. Every possession counts, and obviously South Carolina is gonna take care of the ball. I mean, I'm sure LSU is gonna do everything they can to monkey up the game ... Can they make enough stops down the stretch when they need to? And I'm not sure if they can."