The door to a regular-season conference championship begins closing for some teams sooner than others as soon as the first ball of conference play is tipped. It appeared to be quickening for the LSU Tigers as recently as last Monday. And then they slipped their paw into the crease of the closing door to reassert themselves as challengers in a conference battle that could produce multiple Final Four teams.
Reeling from back-to-back losses to start SEC play, LSU locked in defensively and swarmed previously undefeated Texas, 70-65, at home on Sunday. It was as close to a must-win as one can have this early in the conference schedule, and it boosted their NCAA Tournament resume back up from the cusp.
Advertisement
The Tigers had already fallen behind 0-2 in the SEC by a combined six points to Kentucky and Vanderbilt. But margins don’t matter in win-loss records. Eight of the SEC’s 16 teams are ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 poll. Five ranked in the top seven of last week’s poll. A loss to Texas, the No. 2-ranked team in the nation, would have likely sunk LSU out of contention.
Instead, they pressured Texas the way they’ve aggrieved others. Madison Booker sat most of the second quarter with early foul trouble, and LSU closed the half on a four-point run that turned a one-point lead into five. It decided the game. Not even Texas purposefully running its offense through Booker, who scored 14 of her 24 in the fourth quarter, made up the difference.
Texas head coach Vic Schaefer called it out as his team’s worst game of the year, a selfish display of undisciplined basketball that they hadn’t shown even once amid an 18-0 start. He sat fifth-year starting point guard and former All-American Rori Harmon through the fourth quarter, while disappointed in the offense. A veteran’s veteran, she’ll channel that feeling through the rest of a torrid schedule if she desires an elusive national championship.
LSU head coach Kim Mulkey sparkled as bright as her jacket at a post-game mention of her team showing toughness one week after she pointedly called them out as having none of it. They disrupted passing lanes, stole rebounds out of Longhorns’ hands and found the outlet before the opponent even realized the ball was no longer theirs to put back.
Advertisement
For the first time, the Tigers held on and finished a close contest. Mulkey moved to 121-0 when her team led by at least 10 points in the fourth quarter, according to the ESPN broadcast.
A third loss to the league’s top eight might have been too much to overcome. South Carolina and Texas split the regular-season title with one loss apiece a year ago. LSU finished third at 12-4. Kentucky, ranked sixth last week and still without center Teonni Key (dislocated elbow) is already 2-0 against the eight ranked SEC teams after its 63-57 win over then-No. 5 Oklahoma later in the day.
It was doubly important to LSU due to scheduling difficulties. And Schaefer was sure, when asked about the difficulties of playing in the SEC, to point that out in no uncertain terms.
In the era of bloated conferences, teams now play each other once, with the exception of one team they play a home-and-home with. It creates massive differentiation in the difficulty of schedule within one’s own conference, and can quietly shape the realistic contenders for a crown.
Advertisement
“They obviously have a vendetta against Texas,” Schaefer said.
Texas and LSU will meet again in Austin on Feb. 5, a tough draw for both of them when it comes to winning the conference. Vanderbilt and Kentucky, both top-10 squads, play each other twice. Annual top contender South Carolina plays Alabama twice, a sharp contrast to the competition through which the above four have to battle. Oklahoma plays Texas A&M, Tennessee faces Mississippi State and Ole Miss has Georgia.
The Longhorns played South Carolina twice last year in their inaugural SEC season, hence how they split the regular-season title and had to flip a coin for the No. 1 seed in the tournament. Texas plays at South Carolina on Thursday (7 p.m. ET, ESPN2) in what will be another pivotal game in the SEC race.
“The league is hard enough as it is, but then to bless me and my group with that, it really has a stench to it,” Schaefer said. “And the common denominator is, LSU and South Carolina both play[ed] Georgia before they played me. And South Carolina was at home [Sunday]. I’m disappointed. I said that yesterday. I said it to TV. I’m really disappointed in the league putting our kids in that position.”
Advertisement
Schaefer said he was most frustrated that no one at Texas, including the head of women’s basketball, said anything about the discrepancies. But it is what it is, and the ball will tip in Columbia on another crucial SEC matchup. South Carolina hasn’t played any of the SEC’s elite competition, with the exception of a neutral-site loss to Texas in the Player’s Era Championship. This time, Texas should channel the desperation of a conference hanging in the balance. It also isn’t easier for LSU, which faces Oklahoma.
Performance of the week: Maggie Doogan, Richmond
Maggie Doogan, Richmond’s 6-foot-2 senior forward, took over the season’s single-game scoring title by scoring 48 points in a 91-84 triple-overtime win at home against Davidson on Saturday. The previous mark was 47 by Audi Crooks. Doogan hit 8-of-12 from the perimeter with 13 rebounds.
It also broke the program’s single-game scoring record that Karen Elsner set at 39 on Feb. 2, 1983, and the Atlantic 10 scoring mark set by Sue Wicks, the former New York Liberty forward, with 44 points in 1987.
Doogan’s Spiders are a mid-major to keep an eye on as the calendar speeds toward March, and she could hear her name called at the WNBA Draft. She’s averaging 24.2 points per game, fourth in DI.
Advertisement
Honorable mentions: Ohio State’s Jaloni Cambridge scored 41 in a 78-69 win over Illinois, with three-time WNBA champion A’ja Wilson in attendance. She outscored the Illini, 12-10, in the third quarter. Laila Phelia scored a career-high 38 (13-of-19) for Syracuse to come back against Virginia, 79-60.
Stat of the week: 5-0, Texas Tech’s Big 12 record
Texas Tech is one of the season’s best turnaround stories after finishing the 2024-25 season barely over .500 (19-18) and sitting in the Big 12’s basement at 4-14. They were voted 13th of 16 teams in the Big 12 preseason poll, but now sit atop it at 5-0 with wins over Baylor and West Virginia.
The Raiders are off to their best start in program history and one of three undefeated teams in Division I. One more win would tie their total from a year ago. They are the second-most experienced group behind Big 12 preseason favorite TCU, a transfer-heavy program led by All-American Olivia Miles. Nine of Texas Tech’s 12 players are seniors, and only one of their starters is a first-year transfer.
Advertisement
Texas Tech and TCU won’t meet until Feb. 1, on the back end of a two-game homestand that begins on Jan. 28 with Iowa State, a program sputtering amid injuries.
Game of the week: Texas at South Carolina, Thursday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2
The two top SEC juggernauts will play their single regular-season game this week in a matchup that will have a serious impact in the SEC and NCAA tournament seeding. Texas is 6-1 against teams in the AP poll, including a 66-64 win over the Gamecocks in November, but South Carolina won three of four a year ago.
Yahoo Sports AP poll
1. UConn
2. South Carolina
3. Texas
4. UCLA
5. Vanderbilt
6. LSU
7. Kentucky
8. Michigan
9. Louisville
10. Oklahoma
11. Iowa
12. Baylor
13. TCU
14. Ohio State
15. Maryland
16. Michigan State
17. Ole Miss
18. Princeton
19. Tennessee
20. Iowa State
21. Texas Tech
22. Illinois
23. Duke
24. Nebraska
25. Notre Dame
Advertisement
Official AP Top 25
1. UConn
2. South Carolina
3. UCLA
4. Texas
5. Vanderbilt
6. LSU
7. Kentucky
8. Michigan
9. Louisville
10. TCU
11. Iowa
12. Maryland
13. Oklahoma
14. Ohio State
15. Michigan State
16. Ole Miss
17. Texas Tech
18. Baylor
19. Iowa State
20. Tennessee
21. Alabama
22. Princeton
23. Notre Dame
24. Nebraska
25. Illinois
