No. 5 LSU stays undefeated with victory over Vanderbilt

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Flau’Jae Johnson scored 25 points and Aneesah Morrow scored 23 points, and the undefeated No. 5 Tigers held off Vanderbilt 83-77 on Monday night.

In a game that featured 13 lead changes with neither team leading by more than six points, Johnson and Morrow combined for 10 of LSU’s last 12 points. The final two were a pair of free throws by Mikaylah Williams, who finished with 20 points as the Tigers (19-0, 4-0 SEC) extended their second-best start in school history.

Vanderbilt (14-4, 1-3) was led by Khamil Pierre’s game-high 28 points and team-high eight rebounds. Iyana Moore added 23 points.

Takeaways

Vanderbilt: The Commodores took advantage of LSU’s overaggressive drives in the first half. They drew five charging fouls from the Tigers, including four in the second quarter, erasing LSU’s 6-point lead for a 37-37 tie at halftime.

LSU: The Tigers’ 45-25 rebounding domination was more than just Morrow collecting 15 rebounds to become the eighth player in NCAA Division I history to score 2,500 points and grab 1,500 rebounds. LSU’s three primary backcourt players — Johnson, Williams and Kailyn Gilbert — combined for 13 rebounds.

Key moment

Johnson missed a driving layup through traffic after a second-chance rebound, but Morrow got the offensive rebound and putback for a 79-74 lead with 59 seconds left to play.

Key stat

After opening SEC play shooting 9 of 23 in 3-pointers against Arkansas, LSU is now 4 for 23 in its last three games. The Tigers went 3 for 9 in 3s against Vanderbilt.

Up next

On Sunday, LSU plays at Florida while Vanderbilt hosts No. 15 Tennessee.

___

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball