The LSU women’s basketball team can now turn its full attention to the start of the 2026-27 season, the sixth year of coach Kim Mulkey’s tenure.
The No. 9 Tigers are done with their exhibition games, now that they’ve breezed through the one they played against Loyola-New Orleans on Thursday in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. LSU beat the Wolfpack 119-54 in a performance that looked a lot like the one it put together a week earlier in its first scrimmage.
On Thursday, the Tigers shot 60% from the field and 9 of 19 from 3-point range. They forced 31 turnovers and turned them into 48 points at the other end. They scored 36 points on the fast break and 72 in the paint.
Mulkey started the same lineup that took the floor first last Thursday. Jada Williams was the point guard; MiLaysia Fulwiley and Mikaylah Williams were the two wings; and ZaKiyah Johnson and Grace Knox were the two forwards.
LSU had nine active players for the second exhibition – just like it did in the first. Freshman center Anna Minaeva played in the game after sitting out the first scrimmage with a quad injury, but sophomore forward Meghan Yarvevich did not. She was not spotted on the bench.
Senior forward Noa Morro is still out until at least late November, but she was able to participate in pregame warm-ups on Thursday, and it looked like she was moving well on her surgically repaired right shin.
Seven contributors scored in double figures against the Wolfpack. Mikaylah Williams finished with 23 points on 9 of 14 shooting, while Fulwiley added 16 points and eight steals. LSU also received nice contributions from Johnson, the sophomore who tallied 22 points and nine rebounds, and Lola Lampley, the freshman forward who added 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting.
Knox scored 12 points, pulled down seven rebounds and blocked three shots, while Jada Williams notched eight points and assisted eight field goals.
Minaeva, a 6-foot-5 post player from Russia, tallied 10 points and five rebounds after shooting 3 of 4 from the field and 4 of 10 from the free-throw line. She played 17 minutes.
Next is LSU’s season opener, a matchup with Southeastern Louisiana set to tip off at 7 p.m. Monday in the PMAC. That game will begin a stretch of seven straight home games for the Tigers – all against mid-major opponents.
LSU won’t face its first power-conference foe until the week of Thanksgiving, when it’s set to face Villanova and North Carolina State in the Fort Myers Tip-Off.
This story will be updated.
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