LSU Tigers Open Up Season With Near 100-Point Victory Over Southeastern

The LSU Tigers Women's Basketball team began their 2026 campaign on Sunday with a game against the Southeastern Lions, and it went about as expected. The Tigers enjoyed a stress-free 129-35 win to improve to 1-0 on the season.

The Tigers are not usually the kind of team to have a tough non-conference schedule, so they'll have a few games like this in order to get into a rhythm. They have until the end of the month before their first real competition against Villanova in the Fort Myers Tip-Off.

As the score would suggest, LSU dominated pretty much every area in this game. They had 24 steals, outrebounded the Lions 54 to 19 and forced Southeastern to shoot 27.% from the field.

The Tigers do have four returning major contributors in the starting lineup, but the loss of Flau'jae Johnson feels like losing multiple players. They're going to look to Mikaylah Williams as their big star this year, but she is far from their only talented player.

Williams was celebrated all offseason for getting into the best shape of her basketball career, and she had a great start to the year. She had 19 points, five rebounds, six assists and four steals while shooting 5-of-7 from three.

Sophomore standout ZaKiyah Johnson had the best game of her young career. She had 33 points, 13 rebounds with a block and two steals. Something that will be important to watch is her three-point shooting. She didn't really try to shoot them until super late last year, but said she would shoot more this year. She was 2-of-3 in this one.

Fulwiley continues to be the heart and soul of this defense. She had an inefficient day from the field, but still finished with 20 points, a block and six steals. Her continued growth as a point guard, something she didn't play until last year, will be massive for this team.

Another main goal of the non-conference schedule will be getting freshman center Anna Maeva ready for SEC play. She's six-foot-5 and will be crucial on the defensive end of the court against teams that have size. 

LSU has plenty of rebounding and defensive ability in its starting lineup right now, but there are bigger teams out there. Maeva is their best option at center.

The Tigers' next game will be on Thursday night at home against Texas Southern. That should be another game that Kim Mulkey's squad handles with ease.