Entering the day hoping to earn their 21st win of the 2024-25 season, basketball coach Kim Mulkey and No. 4 LSU (20-1, 5-1 SEC), instead took their first stumble of the year, falling against No. 2 South Carolina (19-1, 7-0 SEC) in Columbia, SC, Friday evening.
Kim Mulkey expresses confidence in her team following first loss of LSU women’s basketball season
There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that this was going to be a battle from start to finish. If anything, it was just a matter of whether LSU would be able to hold up against the South Carolina depth, and for the most part they did exactly that.
Entering the second half trailing 33-30, the Tigers looked good defensively, and the elite size from coach Dawn Staley‘s squad didn’t seem to be causing too many issues in the early going. Still, after the first quarter, turnovers were looking like a concern, and that would end up continuing to be the case through the rest of the matchup.
South Carolina would go on to earn the home victory against SEC rival LSU women’s basketball, but it wasn’t the dominant showing many expected. Despite allowing 22 points off of turnovers, and shooting the ball 29.9 percent from the field, the Tigers held their own, falling by a final score of just 66-56.
“Learned a lot about my team today,” head coach Kim Mulkey said while speaking with the media following Friday’s loss. “I learned we can hang with the best in the country. And I do think they’re the best in the country.”
Coming off a 2024 NCAA Women’s Basketball National Championship, coach Staley once again was set to roll out a loaded roster in 2025, and outside of a rocky performance at No. 1 UCLA (19-0, 7-0 Big Ten) in Los Angeles, they’ve looked the part, currently sitting with an overall record of 19-1.
“I know UCLA put it on them, but, look, I don’t know that I’ve ever coached against a team that’s got 10 McDonald’s All-Americans on a roster. How do you even get 10 on a roster? And that’s what we faced today, and what a challenge it was.”
A challenge, it was indeed, but not one that the purple and gold aren’t up to. As a matter of fact, leading the game by as many as seven points in the first quarter, it even looked like Kim Mulkey and her squad might pull off the upset in enemy territory.
That said, the final score doesn’t lie, and thanks in large part to an elite defensive showing from the Gamecocks, this game will officially go down as coach Staley’s sixth win over Kim Mulkey, and South Carolina’s 17th straight victory over the Tigers of Baton Rouge.
Now, it’s all about how you bounce back.
“I’m not into moral victories. Let’s get that out there. We lost,” Mulkey continued. “But it was a good game. You talk about what each of them could have done better, you make them answer it, you get in the film room for a short period of time, and then you get back to work.”
LSU women’s basketball will next take the floor Sunday afternoon against a sneaky good Texas A&M (10-8, 3-3 SEC) squad, that most recently took down No. 11 Kentucky (16-2, 5-1 SEC) in dramatic, comeback fashion. The game will take place in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center at 3:00 p.m. CT, and will be available to watch live on SEC Network.
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