BATON ROUGE, La. — Flau’Jae Johnson scored 22 points, Aneesah Morrow had 12 points and 12 rebounds, and LSU overwhelmed San Diego State 103-48 on Saturday night in the opening round of the women’s NCAA Tournament.
Morrow increased her nation-leading double-double tally to 28 in her first game since hurting her left foot during a March 8 loss to Texas in the Southeastern Conference tournament.
Johnson, who missed that tournament with a right shin injury, wore a compression sleeve over her lower leg but exhibited the explosiveness, shooting touch and all-around panache that has made her one of the most popular players in women’s college basketball.
“I told myself when I came back that I wanted to be the energy for the team,” Johnson said. “I know that’s what we needed.”
Mikaylah Williams added 13 points for LSU (29-5), the third seed in the Spokane 1 Region that now moves on to host No. 6 seed Florida State in the second round on Monday night. Along the way, Tigers coach Kim Mulkey improved to 22-1 in NCAA tournament openers.
“I think your word — unselfish — is pretty spot on,” Mulkey said of her team’s effort in responding to a question in her postgame media availability. “And I said that to them in a timeout. We had a lot of ball reversal, we shared the ball.
“I thought that everybody was excited, everybody was excited for each other. And when everybody gets to play — and contribute — they all go home feeling good.”
San Diego State (25-10), winner of the Mountain West Conference, did not have a player score as many as 10 points. Adryana Quezada led the Aztecs with eight.
LSU began the game with an 11-0 run capped by Johnson’s steal and layup, which she celebrated by blowing a kiss toward the student section behind the basket.
Sa’Myah Smith‘s layup made it 31-10 just two minutes into the second quarter, and LSU led by 32 in the first half when Morrow’s jumper capped a 7-0 run.
After getting the rest they needed, the Tigers had their full complement of healthy players and wasted no time establishing their supremacy on both ends of the court. LSU shot 59% in the first half and made six of its first 10 shots from deep.
For the Aztecs, they had won eight straight to get to their first NCAA tourney since 2012, when SDSU also lost a first-round game to LSU in Baton Rouge.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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