Even With MiLaysia Fulwiley at Her Best, LSU Still Can’t Figure Out South Carolina

GREENVILLE, S.C. — MiLaysia Fulwiley tried about every trick she possibly could have, and a few she likely should not have, too. It was enough to keep No. 6 LSU in reach of No. 3 South Carolina in the SEC semifinals on Saturday. But it was not enough for anything more.

Fulwiley led all scorers with 24 points and fulfilled her standard quota of plays daring enough to make one earnestly wonder if she is capable of feeling doubt on the court. Her performance secured a halftime lead for LSU. But a disjointed and defensively lackluster second half doomed this group down the stretch. The Tigers lost, 83–77, in much the same fashion that it has lost every recent game against the Gamecocks.

“Every time we play them,” said Flau’jae Johnson, “we lose the same way.”

That has generally meant losing in a way that feels psychological more than simply tactical or physical. Nearly every team struggles against South Carolina, of course, and there cannot be too much shame in losing to the best team in the SEC. But LSU has the speed, talent and offensive firepower to legitimately contend here. The Tigers had similarly built an early lead in their first game this season against the Gamecocks. And they had similarly watched it crumble.

“A margin of error is very, very small when you play great teams like that,” LSU guard Mikaylah Williams said. “And that’s something that we were missing late in the game.”

There were a handful of specific possessions that will surely receive considerable time in the film room from Tigers coach Kim Mulkey. But the loss did not turn on any one sequence as much as it felt like a gradual slide into sloppiness. LSU’s freewheeling pace makes it the highest-scoring team in Division I. It also makes it liable to lose control—particularly against an opponent as steady and patient as South Carolina. There is not a particularly meaningful talent gap here. But there is a structure gap.

“Play harder,” Williams said when asked what the message had been from the coaching staff. “Be more disciplined.”

That applied to every player outside Fulwiley, as well as point guard Jada Richard, who finished with 17 points, five rebounds and four assists. But it felt especially true of Johnson. The senior guard had just six points (four of those coming in the game’s first three minutes) and minimal contributions otherwise. Mulkey sat the veteran leader for a crucial stretch of the fourth quarter.

“She was not shooting it well,” Mulkey said of Johnson. “When you’re not shooting it well, this game has lots of other parts to it. Go rebound, defend, you know, do some other things.”

Johnson conceded as much in the locker room.

“I needed more intensity,” she said. “Just to affect the game more and be more disruptive. It wasn’t enough of that from me, and it showed throughout the whole team, but it starts with me.”

Johnson is the only active member of this group left from the team that won the national championship in 2023. (Senior guard Izzy Besselman has remained on the roster but is unable to play due to a heart condition.) That postseason started with a similarly frustrating loss in the semifinals of the SEC tournament. LSU used the week and a half that followed to re-establish fundamentals and overhaul as much as possible before the NCAA tournament. Whether the Tigers can do the same this year will likely determine whether they can pull off a similar run this March.

That will require the leadership of Johnson and Williams, and it will require commitment from the post players, too. But perhaps the biggest question mark is Fulwiley. There are few college players as naturally talented. But there are few players whose natural talents look quite so raw. That has been consistent in her college career, beginning with two seasons at South Carolina, and now in her first since transferring to LSU. Her acrobatic shots and behind-the-back passes are sometimes remarkable and sometimes remarkably silly to have even attempted. But her performance on Saturday felt like a blueprint for the right balance to strike going forward.

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“MiLaysia’s game is such that she’s going to do something you’ve never seen before on the floor, so don’t blink, and then she’s going to make you pull your hair out the next time,” Mulkey said. “I didn’t think she had ‘pull your hair out’ moments tonight.”

Fulwiley logged more time on the floor Saturday than she had in any game prior this year. Mulkey brought her off the bench as usual, but she nevertheless played nearly the entire game, 35 minutes.

“But she doesn’t really care about that tonight,” Mulkey went on to say. “What she cares about is she lost.”

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