LSU guard Flau’jae Johnson will miss the SEC tournament, Tigers coach Kim Mulkey told the team’s radio station Sunday.
Johnson has been battling shin inflammation since the Tigers’ Feb. 16 loss to Texas, Mulkey said. Johnson missed LSU’s regular-season finale against Ole Miss on Sunday, and now the hope is that she will be healthy enough to rejoin the team by the start of the NCAA tournament.
“I know she’s trying to mask the pain she’s in,” Mulkey said on the pregame show. “It’s not a stress fracture or anything like that. It’s just rest. We’ll get that inflammation down, and we’ll see the Flau’jae that we need to see when we start playoffs.”
Sunday’s game was only the second contest Johnson has missed in her college career.
The junior is leading LSU in scoring this season at 18.9 points per game, the sixth-best average in the SEC, on 46.5% shooting.
In her last game, though, Johnson scored a season-low six points, prompting Mulkey and her staff to look to get her some recovery time.
“I don’t think Flau’jae’s best basketball has happened in the last couple of weeks,” Mulkey said, “so let’s rest her. Why put her through that, because it’s just not worth it.”
The SEC tournament tips off Wednesday in Greenville, South Carolina.
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