South Carolina women's basketball earned a consequential SEC win on Saturday night in Baton Rouge, defeating the No. 6 LSU Tigers by a score of 79-72. The matchup was the sixth consecutive game in which both teams were ranked top ten in the AP Top 25 poll.
Senior guard Ta’Niya Latson got on the board first with a layup on the game’s opening possession. Senior guard Raven Johnson followed up the score with a 3-pointer, taking an early 5-0 lead.
The Tigers answered with a 3-pointer of their own from junior guard Mikaylah Williams. They earned their first lead of the game when senior guard Flau’jae Johnson drilled a triple to bring the score to 8-7 three minutes into the game.
At the five-minute mark of the first quarter, the Gamecocks had made just one of their last seven shots. They were 2-7 on layups alone.
Junior guard Tessa Johnson retook the lead for South Carolina with her first 3-pointer of the game, pushing the score to 12-11. The Tigers outscored the Gamecocks 10-4 to end the quarter and ended the period with a 21-16 lead.
Tessa Johnson led South Carolina in scoring in the first with 5 points. The quarter consisted of five lead changes.
Raven Johnson hit her second 3-pointer of the game early in the second, bringing the score to 23-21 in LSU’s favor. The Gamecocks didn’t score again for 3:19, with a triple from Tessa Johnson ending the drought. She hit another 3-pointer on the team’s following possession as well.
Flau’jae Johnson nullified the two triples with 8 straight points of her own, bringing the score back within 1 at 35-34. Tessa Johnson drilled yet another 3-pointer, taking her score up to 14 points.
With one minute left in the first half, Raven Johnson’s third 3-pointer of the game brought the Gamecocks back within 1. A layup from Tessa Johnson with 0:44 left in the second quarter lifted South Carolina to a 41-40 halftime lead.
At the midway mark, the Gamecocks had made seven of their last nine shots. The Tigers had made six of their last eight. While LSU was winning the rebound battle 19-16, South Carolina posted seven makes across 12 attempts from beyond the arc in the first half.
After a scoreless first two minutes of the third quarter, sophomore forward Joyce Edwards got the Gamecocks on the board, raising the lead to 3 points at 43-40. The Tigers started the second half missing their first seven shots.
A steal by Raven Johnson led to fast break points for Latson, then LSU called a timeout, now trailing by 8. It was the biggest lead of the game by either team.
At the 4:26 mark of the third quarter, the Tigers entered the bonus. South Carolina had been called for 10 personal fouls compared to LSU’s four.
In the waning minutes of the third quarter, a pair of free throws by Raven Johnson and a buzzer-beating layup from freshman guard Ayla McDowell put the Gamecocks ahead 60-55 entering the game’s final quarter.
Tessa Johnson was called for a foul on the first possession of the fourth period, joining Edwards and senior center Madina Okot with three in the game. By the 6:41 mark, Edwards and Okot were up both to four.
The Tigers entered the bonus with 5:48 left in the game. Despite having six more free-throw attempts, LSU had just one more make than South Carolina from the charity stripe at that point.
Following a stretch of four consecutive misses, the Tigers earned four consecutive makes, bringing the game to 69-68 with 3:53 to play and forcing the Gamecocks to call a timeout.
After the break, Tessa Johnson made a contested layup that pushed the team back up by 3. A bucket from Flau’Jae Johnson brought the Tigers back down 1, and after forcing a stop, she earned two free throws with a chance to take the lead with 45 seconds remaining. She missed both.
At the other end, Raven Johnson dished to Okot under the basket to go back up by 3 with 25 seconds to play. The pair each hit two free throws in the game’s final seconds to earn a 79-72 win.
Raven Johnson posted a career-high 19 points, accompanied by seven rebounds, six assists and four steals on the night. Tessa Johnson finished with 21 points thanks to four made 3-pointers and Okot posted a double-double with 12 points and 17 rebounds.
The win was head coach Dawn Staley’s 500th as South Carolina’s head coach. The victory over LSU was the 18th straight against the program.