LSU women's basketball believes it found key for March Madness run. Here's what it is

BATON ROUGE — Every shot from every angle looks like a good shot when skilled scorers occupy every corner of the floor.

Consider that mostly a blessing for LSU women’s basketball. However, there’s been times where it’s been a detriment.

Over the team’s extended break between their loss to Texas in the SEC Tournament then Selection Sunday to its preparation for their NCAA Tournament opener versus San Diego State, the Tigers took to the practice court to fine tune the blessing of having scorers at all levels.

“When you get so many skilled scorers on the floor, every shot looks like a good shot. But it’s like, what’s going to be the best shot?” LSU star Flau’jae Johnson said. “What’s the best option?

“We’re learning that and I think that’s what is going to make us a great team.”

Kim Mulkey’s practices with her squad over the last 10 days featured a heavy emphasis on ball movement. Rep after rep, players said, had the ball zipping back and forth, cross and diagonal on the court, finding that “best option.”

Each sequence revealed blemishes and work to correct immediately went into the next rep.

“It started from practice throughout the whole week,” Last-Tear Poa said. “Our whole motto was just reversing the ball. When we do, we end up scoring. And it’s a better flow for us. Preparation from the beginning of the week into the game, everything reflecting from practice so we did a great job.”

The hard work was evident in LSU’s 103-48 blowout of the Aztecs in the opening round of March Madness inside Pete Maravich Assembly Center Saturday night.

Johnson knocked down the first 3-pointer of the game and the table was set. LSU went on to shoot 10 of 18 from behind the arc, its best 3-point shooting performance this season and for the game, the Tigers shot 50% from the field (36 of 72).

“That’s something we do in practice every single day,” said LSU sophomore sensation Mikaylah Williams. “I don’t know why it goes away in the games, probably more on me and Flau’jae in not reversing the ball.

“But reversing the ball and seeing other people’s shots go in is a really good feeling especially having that momentum from the bench going into the Florida State game.”

Shayeann Day-Wilson believes the chemistry got stronger for LSU over the course of the last two weeks. Jada Richard said confidence among the team has seen an uptick.

And plenty of it boils down to the stress LSU sharing the ball places on its opponent.

“It made our opponents defend us” Aneesah Morrow said. “You get tired when you got to defend for more than 10 seconds. That’s something that we’ve been working on. Having our opponents defend us and us dominating them defensively.”

Most Tigers said they’ve got extra time in the gym on their own. Flushing bad performances over the last few weeks with emphasized work in practice and seeing the results was good medicine for LSU.

“For me personally in the SEC Tournament, I didn’t shoot that well,” Williams said. “That was something I focused on those two weeks. Coming in and seeing those fall early was a really good sign for me.”

And the players believe they're rediscovering of making that extra pass, finding that “best option” makes them far more dangerous against Florida State Monday night and beyond.

“When we share the ball,” Morrow said, “when we reverse the ball, it’s hard for teams to stop us.”

Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: LSU believes it found key for NCAA Tournament run. Here's what it is

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