GREENVILLE, SC – Miami’s defense is playing at its peak. The storms forced Louisiana State star Angel Reese to miss all nine of her first-half shots in Sunday’s 8th round match in the NCAA women’s tournament. But at halftime, in a game where the stats showed Miami should have prevailed, LSU was up 6 points.
That trend continued in the second half. Although LSU performed one of the worst shooting games of its season, the Tigers’ defense made Miami even more oppressive, and LSU won, 54-42, to advance to the Finals for the first time since 2008.
Reese scored his 32nd double of the season, scoring 13 points, 18 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and 2 saves. The Tigers took a 21-point lead thanks to Alexis Morris, who kept them on through a blundering first half.
Both teams missed more than two-thirds of their shots in the game and combined only to claim a single 3-pointer basket after 27 attempts, with Kateri Poole hitting the only shot after LSU was in good control. .
On Friday in Dallas, LSU will play the winner of Monday’s match between first seed Virginia Tech and third seed Ohio State.
Sunday’s first half saw messy attacks from both teams. They launch open shots, pass the ball and try to find rhythm.
“If I was watching this game, I would turn it off,” LSU coach Kim Mulkey said in an ESPN interview ahead of the fourth quarter.
The second half wasn’t much cleaner. However, Reese’s recovery created a second chance for the Tigers, who took advantage of the lineups to extend their lead and take the win.
Miami starting defenders Destiny Harden and Haley Cavinder, who were among the Hurricanes’ score leads in their three upset wins in this tournament, combined to finish 1/ 15 from the field with 5 points. Almost all of Miami’s fouls came from Jasmyne Roberts, who finished with 22 points and scored 18 of Miami’s first 27 games.
