LSU's Angel Reese, Kim Mulkey Discuss Fight Against South Carolina
No. 8 LSU battled until the final buzzer against No. 1 South Carolina after ultimately coming up short in the SEC Tournament Championship Game.
With just over two minutes remaining, mayhem ensued resulting i in a myriad of ejections after Flau'jae Johnson and the Tigers fought with the Gamecocks.
LSU's Angel Reese and Kim Mulkey discussed the situation and more following Sunday's showdown:
Here's what Reese had to say:
Q: Have you ever been a part of a game like that?
“No, I’ve never been a part of a game like that. But of course, you know, two heavy hitters, we are going to battle. We’re not scared of them. They’re not scared of us. We came in and knew what we had. They came in and knew what they had. And it turned up and went ways that we didn’t want it to go. But I’m proud of this team. We fought. We fought. We fought with five maybe six healthy players, If that. “Just know we’re not scared and we’re at a place right now that I’m proud of and I’m happy to be where we are right now.”
Q: On playing South Carolina while shorthanded…
“We’re not gonna make that an excuse. We’re not scared of South Carolina, and I’m gonna repeat that we’re not scared of South Carolina. A lot of people are scared of them and we came in and battled to he end and of course we came up short, but we’ll see them again, or whoever will see them, but I’m just happy and I’m gonna acknowledge my teammates first because Janae, Aaliyah, they came off the bench and did big things for us. Mikaylah, she was frustrated because she had to do minimum numbers in minimum time, but she came out there and did what she did and she defended. She played as hard as she could so being able to be proud of this team I’m not gonna give them all the credit because I know how hard we played. We played tough, we did whatever it took to win and sadly we came up short, but I’m happy where we are right now and anybody seeing us moving forward should be scared.”
Q: On Aalyah Del Rosario…
“I told her you can bang with Kamila Cardosa you you match up with her and keep doing and keep banging and being confident. Every day and practice she going against me and understands how she has gotten better over the past couple months in her confidence building and her being conditioned and finishing around a basket and not being scared. I’m super proud of where she’s at and her confidence just continues to build.”
Q: What was this weekend like?
“It was fun. I mean, we kind of can see where our team is right now, how tough we are. We can’t put our heads down because of everything that we have been through this weekend. But again, I’m not going to make that an excuse. We’re going to go back. We’re going to rest up and have these, what, a week, week and a half to see where we’re going to be placed for the NCAA tournament. So we’re in a great place right now. We’re going to look back and see what mistakes we made, of course. But I think we’re happy at where we’re at right now.”
Q: How can a tournament like this just prepare LSU for that next step?
“I mean SEC is what one of the best if not the best conference in the country and I think seven to eight teams should be in the tournament There’s so many teams that we face this year that have held us tight or have beat us this year that should be in the tournament so I’m happy for the SEC in the where we at right now I think that helps build us to get ready to play these other teams these other conferences, but I’m just proud of our team and where we’re at right now to finish in the championship where last year we fell short to Tennessee and didn’t get there. LSU as a program, we’re happier where we’re at.”
Q: Do y’all feel fatigued after this weekend?
“I think my adrenaline is still going like I can get another quarter and I think a lot of us if we have five more minutes we wanted to go back out there and fight. I mean this team has just been so relentless all the adversity that we face missing players, injuries, so many things that’s happened to us. We can be tired, but we’re not tired and like I said, I think everybody would love to get another five minutes if we could.”
Here's what Mulkey had to say:
Overall thoughts…
“They did exactly what I thought they would do. I got some champions out there. Guys, you got a kid with a gimpy ankle. You got two starters, basically. Mikaylah got some minutes. She got cleared to get a few minutes. We’re in a good spot. Angel is right. We’re playing some pretty good basketball right now, and that’s just God’s truth. They got a lot of depth. One kid basically hurt us today, and that was Fulwiley. You look at the stats. How can you not leave here and go, God, I wish that the playoff started next week? But we’ll have everybody back. Everybody’s good to go. So the NCAA, you don’t need to call me and ask if Mikaylah Williams is good. You don’t need to ask me if Angel Reese is good. You don’t need to ask me about Poe. She’s only in concussion protocol. We are playing our best basketball. Congratulations to South Carolina. They made plays when we would cut the lead. Turnovers killed us today and it was very, very physical.”
On the incident late in the game…
“Well let me say this, do you realize there was only one foul called on each team with two minutes to play in the fourth quarter, are you kidding me? That might have created some of that. Not the way we play we’re gonna foul your ass. not the way they play they’re gonna foul your ass. But you only blew that whistle one time? Flau’Jae from what I saw intentionally fouled Fulwiley because she stripped her great move because she’s gonna get a layup right there and then some jawing went on with her and another player and then the next thing I know Cardosa came in way later. I ran because somebody came out of the stands. I think it was Flau’Jae’s brother trying to keep him from doing anything crazy. Obviously they saw it on film and said everybody had to go and then I think one player for South Carolina didn’t leave the bench. It’s ugly. It’s not good. No one wants to be a part of that. No one wants to see that ugliness But I can tell you this I wish she would have pushed Angel Reese. You’re six-eight. Don’t push somebody that little. That was uncalled for in my opinion. Let those two girls that were jawing let them go at it.”
Will any of your players be suspended for the next game?
“We didn’t have any ejections. They had an ejection, they told me Cardosa was the only one ejected for fighting.”
What her LSU team showed in this tournament…
“Pretty darn tough. Pretty darn tough. Resilient. Had they have each other’s backs, they wouldn’t get rattled. Fought through some adversity with Poa’s injury last night to even get to this point. I’m sure everybody thought oh, we’re gonna be tired. We’re not gonna be able to compete. They’re gonna blow us out. Well, I think you got a different answer today. That was a ball game out there today.”
On LSU overcoming the adversity…
“I said, let’s start playing tomorrow. I love where we are. I love where we are. We’re not gonna see South Carolina again unless we meet up in the Final Four. I feel like we’ll get a good seed. We’ll host the first and second rounds and I feel great. I feel great.”
