BATON ROUGE, La. — Bree Hall made a go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:14 left and No. 1 South Carolina rallied from an 11-point deficit to beat No. 9 and defending national champion LSU 76-70 on Thursday. Ta. night.
Chloe Kitts scored 14 points to lead the Gamecocks (18-0, 6-0 Southeastern Conference), who led the Tigers (18-3, 5-2) to their 15th straight win and LSU's Their home winning streak ended at 29.
Raven Johnson had 13 points, Tehina Paopao had 12 points and Camila Cardoso had 11 points.
Hall finished with 10 points.
“Once we settled in, it was a dogfight and a run game,” University of South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “They made big plays, and we made big plays. The team that wins this basketball game is the one that makes the last play.”
For LSU, Aneesa Morrow had 16 points and 13 rebounds.
Angel Reese had 15 points and eight rebounds, but fouled out with 4:02 left, giving the Tigers a 67-65 lead.
Johnson made two free throws to tie the game, and LSU's only other goal was a 3-pointer by Haley Van Lith, making it tied at 70-all with 1:42 left. Ta.
“When you don't have Angel Reese on the floor for the last four minutes of the game, it throws off your rhythm,” LSU coach Kim Mulkey said. “It takes away your confidence. The game just turned out the same as it always has. It's toughness, it's experience.”
Van Lith finished with 12 points. Mikayla Williams had 12 points and Fraujai Johnson had 10 points.
LSU led 24-18 at the end of the first quarter and 41-30 at the end of the second, but the Gamecocks ended the period on a 6-0 run that included a 3-pointer at the buzzer by Milesia Fulwilly. Ta.
Cardoso's layup with 6:06 left in the fourth gave South Carolina a 63-61 advantage and its first lead since the game's first basket.
LSU called a timeout and Reese re-entered the game but fouled out two minutes later.
Hall hit a 3 with 2:54 left to make it 70-67, and Van Lith tied it with a 3. LSU called a 30-second timeout to set up the defense, but Hall hit a go-ahead 3 on a post pass from a player. Cardoso.
Hall missed his first six shots but made his last four, all in the final six minutes. Aliyah Boston, a former South Carolina star now with the WNBA's Indiana Fever, sits behind the Gamecocks' bench, and Staley said Hall benefited from Boston's words. Told.
“She said something to Breezy during the timeout and it relaxed her,” Staley said. “She could see the ball coming towards her and hit it like a practice shot, which we do every day when we're out on the court.”
South Carolina outscored LSU 40-29 after halftime and had a 22-12 rebound advantage after the break. The Shamcocks' defensive pressure on the perimeter made it difficult for the Tigers to get into offensive sets.
“We have work to do,” Fraujai Johnson said. “At the end of each quarter (in the first half), we gave up 3 seconds and lost by six points. We have to make sure we strengthen those things. It's the No. 1 team in the nation, and we lost by six points. was almost there.”
