A dominant fourth-quarter surge by the Texas Longhorns shattered the LSU Tigers' seven-game winning streak.
The LSU Tigers had a chance to move into pole position for a one-seed in March's tournament on Thursday night, but a horrid fourth quarter performance led to a 77-64 loss to the Texas Longhorns. This loss ends a seven-game win streak for the Tigers.
LSU now falls to 21-3 on the season and 7-3 in SEC play. Last season was the first time that the Tigers reached four conference losses in the Kim Mulkey era. Now it is in danger of happening again and possibly worsening with three top-20 opponents remaining this season.
LSU has been playing great basketball as of late and should have a historic offense this season. Faced with an elite defense, though, they couldn't put together anything down the stretch. The Longhorns outscored them 20-11 in the fourth quarter, and that still doesn't really showcase what the game felt like.
One of this team's biggest strengths is how selfless they are. Everyone is ready and willing to make that one extra pass or get their teammate involved. Tonight, though, it might have been what did them in.
This is a very deep Tigers roster, but even they need star players to step up in moments that matter. Flau'jae Johnson and Mikaylah Williams combining for four points on one field goal attempt in the fourth quarter is unacceptable. Texas punched them in the face on defense, though, and LSU was unable to adjust.
Williams had 18 points entering the fourth quarter. She didn't have a great night on defense, but she was working on the offensive end. She finished the fourth quarter with zero shot attempts in 10 minutes. That doesn't feel by design.
The Tigers actually did a great job defensively of shutting Madison Booker down. She was averaging 19.1 points on 51.5 from the field entering this game. LSU's defense held her to 18 points on 6-of-21 from the field.
Aaliyah Crump, with 16 points in 24 minutes, was game-changing for the Longhorns. The Tigers' bench was outscored by 11 overall.
Poorly timed turnovers and the inability to convert on offense at all doomed LSU in the end. It was a fairly well-contested game for the first three quarters, with Texas leading by just four entering the fourth. At one point, their lead had gotten up to 17 with just under three minutes to go.
The Tigers will have an easier opponent awaiting them in their next game on Sunday afternoon, but they must quickly figure out what went wrong in this game, as the South Carolina Gamecocks await them next Saturday.