Kim Mulkey’s Thoughts: What Went Wrong for LSU Women’s Basketball Against Alabama?

Kim Mulkey and the LSU Tigers dropped a thrilling overtime matchup on Thursday night in Tuscaloosa behind an impressive showing from Alabama’s Aaliyah Nye.

Nye led all scorers with 28 points and three threes for the Crimson Tide on their way to taking down Mulkey’s crew on the road.

Sarah Ashlee Barker also had a productive night with 21 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists. Four total Alabama players finished with at least 15 points.

“We just needed to match their intensity and their grit,” Mulkey said. “We did in spurts. We did it when we were behind, trying to catch up. But I guess, you know, sometimes you just have to give credit to the opponent, and I think I want to do that tonight.”

What were Mulkey’s thoughts following the matchup in Tuscaloosa?

Mulkey’s Take: LSU Tigers vs. Alabama Crimson Tide

No. 1: Poorly Officiating Matchup

“Yes, that was a poorly officiated game and if you asked [Alabama head coach Kristy] Curry, she’ll tell you the same thing. It wouldn’t matter if we would have won or lost; too much stoppage.

“Think of all the things you saw take place tonight.
Is that basketball? I I don’t even know some of the things I was asking questions, like, what is that call? Why are you going to monitor now?

“To make it clear. They had nothing to do with us losing.
We had a chance to win the game, right? It just didn’t flow for either team.”

No. 2: Lack of Production From Depth Pieces

“Well, we’ve been doing this all year if you look at our games.
We had these kinds of games. We’ve just been fortunate to come out on the winning side of it.

“This isn’t the first one that we’ve had go down to the wire.
It’s just one of many. We’ll continue to do what we’ve done all year, just move on. I don’t want to say flush it,
I want you to remember it and correct it, but we didn’t get production offensively like we needed to and like we normally do from more than one or two players.”

No. 3: The Difference on Thursday Night

“Let’s start at the foul line. You can’t shoot 14 for 23 from the foul line. They missed four. Then let’s go to rebounding. They out rebounded us. That’s where I’d start and we knew they were outstanding shooters and we held them pretty good from three. They only hit seven, but it was backing you in, reverse dribbling, and doing all that.

“I went zone one time and four did it right and one did it wrong and they burned us on the three right where she left chasing somebody. You can’t do those things on the road against good teams. Alabama is a good team. They have older players and they deserved to win.”