Flau’jae Johnson keeps LSU women’s season alive, lifting Tigers over UCLA in Sweet 16
The shot clock ticked under 8 seconds when Flau’jae Johnson shot it a glance. The LSU guard couldn’t wait. Because she didn’t have much time – to salvage a possession and score a bucket that could save the LSU women’s basketball season.
Johnson drove the lane, blew past one UCLA defender and finished a scooping layup under the outstretching arm of another, the 6-foot-7 center Lauren Betts.
At the time, the No. 3-seeded Tigers (31-5) led UCLA by two points, and only 44 seconds had yet to tick off its win over the No. 2 Bruins in the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16. Johnson’s bucket gave LSU a more comfortable lead, which it used Saturday to secure 78-69 victory in Albany, New York, and advance to the Elite Eight for the 10th time in program history.
The sophomore star scored a game-high 24 points, grabbed a team-high 12 rebounds and blocked two shots. She sank 7 of 11 field-goal tries and 8 of 10 free throws.
But Johnson stopped short of declaring it the best game of her career.
“No,” she said. “I’ve played better games. I feel like my whole life, I’ve been hooping a whole long time. This is just a bigger stage for me, and just give all the glory to God and working. That’s it.”
Against UCLA (27-6), four LSU players picked up at least three fouls, and Angel Reese fouled out late in the fourth quarter.
The Bruins corralled 10 more offensive rebounds than the Tigers and nailed five more 3-pointers.
LSU also scored only three points on the fast break – even though it limited UCLA to a 36% shooting day – and committed seven more turnovers.
But the Tigers won anyway.
LSU shot 46% from the field and 24 of 31 at the free-throw line. Reese scored 16, Aneesah Morrow added 17 and freshman Mikaylah Williams chipped in 12, including a few important midrange buckets down the stretch of the fourth quarter.
And in the final minute of the game, LSU outscored UCLA 8-1.
First, Betts blocked a Reese layup attempt, but Johnson corralled the offensive rebound and finished her scooping layup as the shot clock expired. On the ensuing UCLA possession, Hailey Van Lith of Cashmere (Washington) High School drew a charge. LSU then made 6 of 8 free throws (4 of 4 from Van Lith) in the final 36 seconds, and Johnson blocked a Betts layup to close out the victory.
“I just thought a lot of individual players did a lot of little things to help us just keep playing the game,” coach Kim Mulkey said. “One of the ways I’ve always thought that we can win a lot of games is we get to the foul line, and we did that again tonight.”
In the third and fourth quarters, UCLA hit 5 of 15 3-point tries, shaking off an ice-cold shooting start and erasing an LSU lead that climbed as high as 10. In the third, referees whistled LSU for five fouls, including two on Reese, who left the game at the 8:16 mark of the fourth and didn’t return until 4 minutes later.
Up to that point, the Tigers had strung together a few productive possessions, but the foul trouble ground to a halt any momentum they had piled up.
LSU started to find opportunities for transition offense halfway through the second quarter. Three minutes into the quarter, Johnson’s hesitation, right-handed drive and pirouette gave her space to bank in a layup to give the Tigers a five-point lead.
The first half gave LSU chances to uncork its transition attack. UCLA shot 30% from the field and misfired on 15 of its first 17 3-pointers. But the eight rebounds it swiped off the offensive glass took away chances for LSU to run.
Still, the Tigers built a 34-27 halftime lead after finding open looks in the half court. A 9-2 second-quarter run put them ahead, and an 8-3 run to close the first half kept them in front.
As part of that run, Reese fired a pocket pass from the high post that gave Morrow an easy layup, and both Johnson and Mikaylah Williams knocked in open midrange jumpers.
A couple of possessions later, UCLA’s Londynn Jones hit a 3-pointer just before the halftime buzzer, portending the flurry of 3-pointers it’d later use to climb back into the game.
But LSU, thanks to Johnson’s heroics, did just enough in the second half to keep its season alive.
“I think that I wasn’t scared of the moment,” Johnson said. “I really loved the delight. I love that underdog feeling. Coach Mulkey told me go do what you do, and I did.”
Betts, Londynn Jones and Gabriela Jaquez all scored 14 points for the Bruins.
(1) Iowa 89, (5) Colorado 68: Caitlin Clark and the top-seeded Hawkeyes looked venerable during their narrow second-round win over West Virginia.
That was hardly the case this time.
Clark piled up 29 points, with most of her highlights came on passes, as she had 15 assists to help all five Iowa starters reach double figures in a breezy win over the Buffaloes in Albany.
The Hawkeyes’ victory sets up and Elite Eight meeting with LSU on Monday, a rematch of last season’s national championship.
(1) Southern California 74, (5) Baylor 70: Oregon State isn’t the only Pac-12 team marching on.
The Trojans, backed by Juju Watkins 30 points and clutch free throws, edged the Bears at Moda Center in Portland.
USC first made the Final Four in 1994.
(3) Connecticut 53, (5) Duke 45: The Huskies’ stout defense held the Blue Devils to 13 points in the first half, which proved the difference in Portland.
Former player of the year Paige Bueckers scored 24 points for UConn, which sets up a meeting with USC in the Elite Eight. The Huskies are trying to return to the Final Four after missing out last season, which snapped the team’s streak of 14 straight Final Fours.
— The Spokesman-Review contributed to this report