Hawaii hangs with LSU before being outclassed in NCAA Tournament loss

BATON ROUGE, La. >> Hawaii discovered itself in a well-known place when it began the fourth quarter of its first-round NCAA Match recreation at LSU.

Just like its predicament within the fourth quarter of the Massive West Match championship recreation, the Rainbow Wahine confronted a double-digit deficit. This time it was within the opening spherical of the NCAA’s Greenville 2 regional and, with third-seeded LSU because the opponent, the end result was totally different.

LSU All-America submit participant Angel Reese posted her twenty ninth double-double of the season, and LSU surged within the fourth quarter for a 73-50 win over Hawaii on the Pete Maravich Meeting Heart on the LSU campus.

Kallin Spiller scored the primary basket of the fourth quarter to make it 48-35, however LSU (29-2) responded with a 10-0 run to take a 58-35 lead with 7:24 to play. The Rainbow Wahine had been unable to get nearer than 18 factors the remainder of the way in which.

Reese completed with 34 factors and 15 rebounds, and Flau’jae Johnson added 10 for the winners..

“You need to choose your poison with a staff as gifted as LSU,” Hawaii coach Laura Beeman mentioned. “We knew we weren’t going to cease Reese. We simply needed to do nearly as good a job on her as we might on the boards. We needed to make her touches be exterior the boards as a lot as attainable and make her work somewhat bit.”

Hawai (18-15), which got here into the sport as a heavy underdog, saved issues attention-grabbing till the fourth quarter. In the end, too many turnovers and never sufficient open seems to be on the basket had been its undoing.

LSU pressured Hawaii into three shot-clock violations, but additionally had the Wahine taking pressured pictures late in possessions. The Tigers lengthy, athletic protection pressured 21 turnovers and made Wahine inside gamers Spiller and Daejah Phillips work for all the pieces.

>> Hawaii counts NCAA Match loss as a step ahead

Spiller and Phillips every completed with 13 factors, whereas main scorer Lily Wahinekapu was held to 11 factors. Imani Perez pulled down a team-high 9 rebounds

“I personally really feel like me and my teammates left all of it on the courtroom,” Spiller mentioned. “There (had been) undoubtedly some pictures we want would have fallen or some defensive stops we might have gotten, however hats off to LSU. It’s an awesome program that’s going to make a deep run on this event and I’m actually happy with what our staff was in a position to present at this time.”

Hawaii misplaced the rebounding battle 40-33 however pulled down 13 offensive boards. The Wahine had been solely in a position to flip these second probabilities into eight factors.

“Reese goes to get what she will get,” Beeman mentioned. “She’s going to go No. 1 or No. 2 within the WNBA (Draft). We don’t have a professional on our staff proper now.”

LSU managed the paint on each ends of the ground within the first half. Reese scored 14 factors and grabbed seven rebounds. The Tigers additionally blocked seven pictures within the first two quarters.

“I assumed we did a fairly good job on the boards. Turnovers and the quantity of factors they had been in a position to rating off of turnovers acquired us,” Beeman mentioned. “I feel what it got here all the way down to was when massive pictures needed to be made, they made massive pictures and we missed pictures after we had wide-open seems to be. To beat a staff the standard of LSU it’s important to hit wide-open pictures, and we simply didn’t try this.”

Hawaii opened the sport with confidence. The Wahine pressured a turnover, and Wahinekapu hit a 3-pointer from the left wing for a 3-0 lead. LSU pressured three turnovers and scored two baskets, however Wahinekapu’s scoring drive gave Hawaii a 5-4 lead.

LSU went on to take an 18-7 lead after one quarter.

Within the second quarter, LaDazhia Williams’ three-point play gave LSU a 23-11 lead, however Hawaii continued to indicate the combat that carried it to the Massive West Match championship. The Wahine twice minimize LSU’s result in eight factors, after which sliced it to seven factors on Meilani McBee’s 3-pointer with three minutes to go within the half.

Hawaii missed three 3-pointers within the closing minutes, and LSU scored the final 4 factors to take a 35-22 lead into halftime.

The Wahine went 7-for-32 from 3-point vary, however Wahinekapu completed simply 1-for-7 and Phillips 0-for-3. Spiller was 3-for-7. LSU was 1-for-14 from 3, however the Tigers leaned on Reese on the within, the place she completed 13-for-20.

LSU advances to tackle sixth-seeded Michigan, which defeated No. 11 UNLV 71-59 on Friday. The Tigers may have not less than yet one more particular person rooting them on in Spiller.

“I feel it’s actually clear (LSU) has nice guards, they’ve nice posts — they’ve a full staff and are in a position to do all the pieces,” Spiller mentioned. “(LSU coach Kim) Mulkey has executed an awesome job with them. It’s fairly clear that they’re going to make a deep run and, after enjoying them, I’m rooting for them.”