BATON ROUGE, La. – Angel Reese had 10 points and 19 rebounds as No. 3 seed LSU overcame a strong performance from No. 14 seed Rice to win 70-60 in the first round of the women’s NCAA Tournament on Friday. .
Aneesa Morrow added 15 points, and Fraujai Johnson and Mykayla Williams each had 14 points for the defending national champion Tigers (29-5). The Tigers had a hard time beating the Owls (19-15), but this played no small role. He committed a season-high 24 turnovers.
After losing their final five games of the regular season, Rice won four straight in the American Athletic Tournament and surprisingly made it to the NCAA Tournament.
It wasn’t easy against LSU, which never led by more than 11 points throughout the game, but Maja Bochnevich’s 3 from the left side and a layup from Sussy Nugrefaq made it 62-56 with 1:56 left. After that, the difference was only 6 points.
Destiny Jackson had 15 points and Maria Fisher had 13 points and three steals for Rice. Nuglefak and Emily Kraczek each had 10 points.
LSU never trailed and was tied at two early in the second quarter, but Kracek’s 3-pointer put Rice within 30-27, and LSU led by just three points at halftime.
In the third quarter, the Tigers’ lead was cut to one point three times.
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rice: The Owls played like a team with nothing to lose and were relentlessly opportunistic, turning LSU turnovers into 16 points.
They couldn’t quite overcome their lack of size and skill against star-studded LSU, losing 43% to 35%.
LSU: The frontcourt of Reese and Morrow has been too much for most opponents this season, and Rice was no exception.
Reese recorded his 24th double-double this season and his 13th consecutive year.
The Tigers defeated Rice 42-29.
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LSU advanced to the second round for the third consecutive season.
She is one win away from advancing to the Albany Bi-District semifinals and two wins away from potentially facing Iowa State and NCAA all-time leading scorer Caitlin Clark in a rematch of last season’s national title game.
