Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Tiger duo too much for Rebels
LSU was double trouble for Ole Miss in a battle of ranked SEC teams on Monday in Oxford, Miss.
Point guard Khayla Pointer registered a tripledouble, while center Faustine Aifuwa put up a double-double to help the No. 15 Tigers down the No. 25 Rebels.
LSU, which is in the midst of playing five of seven games on the road, won for the fourth time in its last six games. Ole Miss lost for the third time in its last four.
It was the first road win for Coach Kim Mulkey and the Tigers since a Jan. 9 victory at Auburn. LSU lost at Florida and at Arkansas in late January.
Pointer, a graduate student, had 16 points despite shooting just 4-of-17 from the field, to go with 11 rebounds, 10 assists and 3 steals for LSU. Mulkey chose to concentrate on her multitude of contributions instead of the poor shooting night.
“Look at her other stats, guys,” Mulkey told The Daily Advertiser. “No, she didn’t shoot it particularly well, but she has three steals and one turnover in 40 minutes of play on top of the triple-double.”
Earlier this month, Pointer became the first player in LSU history to hit career totals of at least 1,500 points, 500 rebounds and 500 assists. Pointer ranks second in the league in scoring average (19.0), second in assists (5.3), 10th in steals (1.9) and amazingly, 12th in rebounds (6.5) despite being only 5-7.
Aifuwa, a 6-5 senior, was also strong inside with a team-high 20 points and 14 rebounds.
“From what I have been told [Aifuwa] is in the best shape of her life,” Mulkey said. “She never has run the floor as well as she’s running it now.
“We wouldn’t be where we are without those bigs. I understand people write about our guards, as they should. But those guards are the recipients of a lot of good things that our post [players] are doing.”
Gators chomping
Zipporah Broughton scored the final four points and Florida scored the final eight to knock off No. 14 Georgia 54-51 on Sunday.
Malury Bates scored on a hook shot in the paint to give Georgia a 51-46 lead with 4:30 remaining in the game, but the Bulldogs wouldn’t score again. Jordyn Merritt answered with a jumper to get Florida, within three at the 3:35 mark. Kiara Smith sank two free throws after she stole the ball and was fouled to cut the deficit to one with 2:16 left.
Que Morrison missed a three-pointer for the Bulldogs and Broughton hit a go-ahead jumper and was fouled with 1:32 remaining. Broughton missed the free throw, but a miss by Georgia and a shot-clock violation by Florida left 30 seconds for Georgia. But Sarah Ashlee Barker missed a three with 5 seconds to go, and Broughton made a layup to put an exclamation point on the Gators’ second straight victory over a ranked team.
Pitts, Aggies rally
Texas A&M’s Destiny Pitts made five threepointers, the last in overtime to seal a 73-64 victory over Kentucky on Sunday afternoon. Pitts had a season-high 20 points in helping the Aggies rally from a 12-point deficit.
A&M never trailed in the overtime period. The Aggies scored the first four points in the extra period and Pitts’ three-pointer with 1 minute, 55 seconds left gave A&M its largest lead of the day at 66-59.
Kentucky (9-10, 2-7) had a chance to win the game in regulation. Rhyne Howard hit two free throws with 36 seconds left to give the Wildcats a 55-53 lead. But the Aggies’ Sydnee Roby tied it with a layup. Kentucky used two timeouts in the final 29 seconds, but settled for a contested, long three-pointer by Howard.
Pitts had a good feeling going into overtime.
“I knew then, if it went to overtime that we were going to win the game, because of how locked in we were and not allowing Howard to take [a good shot],” Pitts told The Bryan Eagle.
Howard attempted only one shot in overtime and by then the Aggies had a 10-point lead.
Fowles recognized
Former LSU great Sylvia Fowles will be recognized prior to the Tigers’ game against Georgia tonight.
Fowles announced last week that the upcoming WNBA season will be her last.
She led LSU to four Final Four appearances — 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 — and she holds the program record for most postseason games played. She also still holds the LSU records for career blocks (321), rebounds (1,570) and double-doubles (86). She was named to the LSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2015 and then in 2017 her No. 34 women’s basketball jersey was retired.
Fowles, who also helped Team USA to four Olympic gold medals, went on to a strong professional basketball career, earning WNBA Rookie of the Year honors and helping Minnesota claim a WNBA championship and also picking Finals MVP honors. Two years later, she was named the league’s MVP and helped the Lynx to another title.
The 13-year WNBA veteran will enter her final season as a four-time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year, a seven-time WNBA All-Star, a seventime WNBA All-Defensive First-Team selection, and a three-time All-WNBA First-Team selection. Last year she was named to the WNBA 25th Anniversary Team.
Top players
Florida’s Kiara Smith helped the Gators take down Tennessee and also played a key role in ending a ninegame losing skid to Georgia to earn SEC Player of the Week honors. She averaged 17.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 3.0 steals in wins over the two ranked teams. She moved into 15th in school history with 1,412 career points.
Vanderbilt’s Sacha Washington registered her fourth double-double of the season to earn the league’s Freshman of the Week award. Washington recorded career highs in points (15) and rebounds (16) in the Commodores’ overtime loss to Alabama.