Unstoppable Aneesah Morrow leads LSU to Elite Eight

“We knew coming in that was going to be the key to the game, keeping them off the boards, and we still couldn’t do it,” NC State head coach Wes Moore told media after the game. “We just didn’t have an answer for her. We were trying to get around and front her some, we were trying to double her some. But the problem was it was a lot of it was of offensive rebounds and just being aggressive down there.”

Morrow is consistently a talented rebounder, but on Friday it was personal — this was not going to be her last game.

“Nobody likes to lose, so I talked to my teammates in the huddle, and I told them we got to take our matchups personally,” Morrow said. “We have to be able to dominate and we have to be able to make defensive stops and we did that towards the end of the game.”

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Morrow seemed disappointed that many of her rebounds were off of missed shots, while Mulkey joked that Morrow should’ve gotten 20. The Tigers head coach was full of glowing praise for her senior forward.

“She just works. She’s an undersized post player in there battling bigger girls, demanding the ball, guarding on the perimeter,” Mulkey said. “She just is one you want on your team. She just is one of those kids that she plays that hard in practice every day. Sometimes you put her on the side because it’s like, Nees, this is one of those days where you can take a deep breath.”

“I still have to be able to make an impact offensively when my shots are not going in,” Morrow said. “That’s going up and being able to react and get another rebound.”

Mulkey also reminded media (and WNBA GMs) that Morrow can hit threes like she did in this game. The DePaul transfer took a lot of threes while playing in her hometown, but at LSU “it’s not needed.” Morrow took four shots from beyond the arc on Friday and connected on two.

The success is not meaningful in a vacuum, either. It means something to Morrow because of what it took to get there.

“I’m honestly just overall grateful,” Morrow said. “My parents have been through a lot of stuff, and I’ve been through a lot of stuff. I’ve seen things that I shouldn’t have seen. I’ve been in crossfire. I’ve been through it all, honestly, being from South Side [Chicago].”

“And the sacrifices that they’ve made for me, I go out — not only on the court, but off the court, I’m a student-athlete — and I make sure that I take care of my grades academically. I just never want them to worry about anything. I never take anything for granted, an opportunity or anything. So just coming out here working hard every day is just giving my thanks to them.”

Morrow also plays with gratitude for the LSU fan base. The fans who traveled the long distance from Baton Rouge to Spokane made themselves known all game long with a continually strong chorus of “L-S-U”, except for the times they switched to defense chants.

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“I’ve never had a fan base like this before,” Morrow said. “Honestly, the love and support that I got from the fans when I first came on a visit, that’s exactly why I came here … They send you long paragraphs after the game, that be like, ‘You got this.’ …  They really watch us and they really support us and it’s good for someone to not only care about you as an athlete, but as a person.”

At one point during the game, Morrow celebrated a particularly tough put-back bucket like a gift to the fans that had traveled, blowing a kiss to the large group of purple and yellow as she ran back on defense. After the game ended, Morrow walked over to the LSU contingency and blew two-handed kisses that were received with loud cheers before departing.

Sophomore guard Mikaylah Williams said the fans act consistently like a sixth player on the court for the Tigers.

“Just knowing that they have our back going into the game. When we’re down, they still have our back,” Williams said. “Like, I know y’all are in there and y’all heard that “L-S-U.” Like, that really drives us to want to win the game … Also just seeing my dad in the crowd. He hasn’t missed one game since I’ve been in college. So just seeing his sacrifice makes me go that 10 times harder.”

Flau’Jae Johnson leads from the bench, teammates take over her scoring impact

The narrative around LSU this year has focused heavily on the ‘big three’ of Morrow, Williams and Flau’Jae Johnson. Williams for her part added 19 points, eight rebounds and a team-high six assists. Johnson pulled down five rebounds and dished four assists but only scored three points before departing the game with five minutes left and not returning.

Mulkey didn’t see what happened and was still unsure post-game what exactly occurred, but the athletic training staff told her that Johnson was seeing double and would not allow her to re-enter the game. Johnson made sure her contributions continued regardless.

“I think that’s just what a team is. Obviously, Flau’Jae didn’t have her best shooting night, but she was still an amazing leader,” Williams. “She still kept us together in the huddle. She told us what she saw on the sidelines. So even though she wasn’t there presently on the court, she was still there in our ear, still supporting us, still backing us up, and having our back.”

“So I think that’s just a testament to the type of person that she is and also the type of team that we have and the type of chemistry and the bond that we have.”

On Saturday, both Mulkey and Johnson said she is doing well and should be good to go for Sunday’s Elite Eight game.

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The full team effort extended beyond the big names, though. Redshirt sophomore Sa’Myah Smith had her second high impact performance in a row, registering a double-double with 21 points and 11 rebounds. Smith sees it as just doing her job, playing her role, but has soaked up all the encouragement from her teammates.

“I would say Sa’Myah is playing very confident, and Sa’Myah is quietly just doing her job and somewhat doing everybody else’s job too,” Mulkey said proudly. “When we get beat tonight on dribble penetration, and they would come off that screen at the top, she altered shots, she blocked shots, she got rebounds. She’s just becoming more comfortable.”

In November 2023, Smith tore the ACL, MCL and meniscus in her right knee. She missed the remainder of the 2023-24 season. In high school she had torn the ACL and meniscus in her left knee, so the injury at LSU was her second knee surgery.

Mulkey is acutely aware that it takes time to get comfortable again as the body catches up with the mind.

“I think with Sa’Myah, you get a clearance from a doctor that you’re good to go, but it’s above [the head],” Mulkey said. “It’s below [the head] that you have to take your time and let it happen. And I just think she’s just playing very, very good basketball right now.”

Defense wins games

“You’re never going to see the floor if you don’t commit to defense,” Mulkey said plainly while telling a story about her conversations with junior transfer Kailyn Gilbert ahead of the guard transferring to LSU.

Gilbert hadn’t worried about the defensive end of the floor before, but honest conversations with Mulkey made it clear that wouldn’t fly at LSU. The 5’8 guard scored an efficient 7 points on the night but perhaps made no play bigger than her block on NC State’s Zoe Brooks with 1:31 left in the game. Brooks had “cooked” her on multiple driving layups in a row but that time she recovered and blocked the attempt from behind.

“To watch her on-ball defense every day in practice get better and better and then to watch her — like she said, she was getting beat off the dribble there, make a defensive play, it’s only fitting that we talk about that in this game,” Mulkey said.

In the final two minutes of the game, LSU kept the Wolfpack from scoring any points, as they missed all five of their field goal attempts. With 44 seconds left in the game, NC State was down 76-73 after Smith made a pair of free throws and took a timeout to draw up a play.

The Wolfpack tried to get Aziaha James, one of their best three-point shooters, a good look, but Shayeann Day-Wilson got around the screen and shut down any space she had. NC State settled for a very tough fadeaway three-point attempt that missed and the 5’6 Day-Wilson secured the rebound.

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LSU took their timeout to advance and Day-Wilson set up to inbound. Two Tigers got in each other’s way trying to catch her cross-court inbound pass and LSU immediately turned the ball over. With 20 seconds remaining, the Wolfpack had another chance to tie the game with a three but Day-Wilson made the big play again, drawing a moving screen offensive foul on sophomore Maddie Cox.

LSU got the ball in cleanly this time around, drawing a clock-stopping foul and hitting the free-throws to make it a two possession game. NC State again tried to get James open, and though she got the shot off, it was heavily contested by Day-Wilson.

Playing for her third school after spending her two years at Duke and a third at Miami, Day-Wilson is proud to contribute on the defensive end of the floor and take on the toughest assignment.

“The game is bigger than scoring the ball,” Day-Wilson said. “This year just taught me that there’s other ways you can impact the game … and I feel like a lot of people don’t see that. It’s just in their head [that] it’s all about scoring. But I felt like I just did my part, and I didn’t want to hurt my team today, and I took on the best matchup, and I took it real personal.”

The LSU Tigers will face the UCLA Bruins in the Elite Eight at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 30.