No. 5 LSU tops Texas A&M 64-51 behind 22 points from Flau’Jae Johnson

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Flau’Jae Johnson scored 22 points, including eight in the fourth quarter, to help No. 5 LSU beat Texas A&M 64-51 on Sunday.

Aneesah Morrow added 19 points for the visibly fatigued Tigers (21-1, 6-1 SEC).

LSU was playing its second game in 48 hours after losing at No. 2 South Carolina on Friday in a contest postponed from Thursday. LSU opened the second quarter on a 15-2 run and never trailed the rest of the way though the Aggies (10-9, 3-4) made it a one-possession game in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter.

The Aggies were led by Taliyah Parker, who scored 14 points off the bench. Aicha Coulibaly and Sole Williams added 12 and 10 points.

Takeaways

Texas A&M: The Aggies, sensing LSU’s fatigue, attacked the basket the entire game. A&M got the Tigers’ Johnson, Morrow and Williams in first-half foul trouble – a rarity this season.

LSU: The Tigers’ lack of depth showed late in the second quarter when their scoring trio of Johnson, Morrow and Williams were all on the bench in foul trouble with 4:30 left in the half. From that point, LSU missed its last 7 of 8 field goal attempts with A&M’s 9-3 scoring burst cutting the Tigers’ lead to 30-25 at the half.

Key moment

Sole Williams’ 3-pointer cut LSU’s lead to 48-46 with 6:45 left but the Tigers responded with a 12-3 run that featured two Kailyn Gilbert 3-pointers and three Johnson drives.

Key stat

LSU, which entered the game ranked third nationally in offensive rebounds, had a season-high 30 of them. It allowed the Tigers to attempt 21 more field goals (72 to 51).

Up next

On Thursday, LSU hosts Oklahoma while Texas A&M plays at Arkansas.

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By RON HIGGINS
Associated Press