BATON ROUGE — LSU women’s basketball was leading by a slim margin at halftime over Tennessee but in one of its “ways to win” categories, the team was getting pummeled.
For the first two quarters, LSU coach Kim Mulkey thought her team lacked physicality in a first half she described as “rec ball.” Tennessee led LSU by nine rebounds at the break as associate head coach Bob Starkey, who works with LSU’s post players, issued the challenge.
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The Tigers answered the bell in the second half, outrebounding the Lady Vols by 11 en route to beating Tennessee 89-73 on Thursday, Feb. 26 for senior night inside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
MORE LSU WBB COVERAGE LSU women’s basketball speeds past Lady Vols: Final score, highlights
“We were being pushed around, dominated,” Mulkey said. “It’s hard to put a body on somebody that flies in from the 3-point line and they’re 6-foot-3, 6-4 to get rebounds. But get in front of them. I decided to go small.
“Our message got through. Coach Starkey works with post players. He’s wasn’t too thrilled and he challenged them. I thought (freshman ZaKiyah Johnson and Grace Knox) accepted the challenge. They went in there and battled.”
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Kim Mulkey on the LSU women’s basketball-Tennessee Lady Vols matchup in first half
“That was rec ball. Nobody guarding anybody. I guess some people like that. Junky coaches don’t. I like defense. But it settled down a little bit more in the second half.”
Kim Mulkey on her team going to the rim vs Lady Vols
“Today, it was don’t settle for anything outside the paint until they take charges or they stop you, you just go right to the paint and you score. I thought we did that. Just be physical. I thought at halftime, one of the messages I gave was that we’re not very physical. This doesn’t fit our idea of what we’re supposed to be doing. I thought we got more physical rebounding, taking the ball off the dribble and getting into the paint.”
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Kim Mulkey and Grace Knox responding after not playing in last game
“Grace is motivated every game, every day. I love her fire, I love how she gets pumped up. I didn’t ask her to apologize to anybody. She did that on her own because she knew that it cost us six points in that moment. She said she’s not losing her fire. She’s not going to stop being Grace and that’s what I love about her. She’s got a burning desire to be tough, to be physical, to play the game the way it’s supposed to be played. She got some big rebounds in a lot of traffic in that second half tonight.”
Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Here’s what Kim Mulkey said after LSU’s win over Tennessee Lady Vols
