GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — It was more of the same for Angel Reese, but a lot more for Jasmine Carson.
Reese had her ninth first-half double-double, Carson had a career-high five 3-pointers before the break, and No. 5 LSU raced past Florida 90-79 Sunday.
Reese finished with 25 points and 16 rebounds for her 25th double-double of the season, two shy of Sylvia Fowles’ LSU single-season record. She also had five assists, three blocks and two steals.
Carson is the one who busted out, also scoring 25 points, a career-high for the West Virginia graduate transfer.
“She had a rough last game but … she’s a really great 3-point shooter,” Reese said. “To be able to have her make key shots, she was the key today for us to get the victory.”
Carson went 7 of 14 behind the arc, helping the Tigers to a season-best 11 3s on 20 attempts. The last time LSU had a player hit seven 3-pointers was in 1997.
LSU coach Kim Mulkey said her team was well prepared.
“We knew if we just reversed the ball we were going to get any shot we wanted,” Mulkey said. “Jazmine got a lot of good open looks and thank goodness she was hitting them.”
LaDazhia Williams added 15 and 10 and Flau’jae Johnson scored 12 points for LSU (25-1, 13-1 Southeastern Conference), which let a 16-point halftime lead dwindle to 59-50 after a dismal third quarter. The Tigers were 4 of 15 in the third with seven turnovers with Reese not attempting a shot.
After the third quarter woes, LSU was 13 of 19 in the fourth, which was enough to stay in front of the hot-shooting Gators, who were 9 of 10 with four 3s, and made 7 of 8 free throws. Reese had nine points in the first five minutes of the quarter to push the lead back to 16 of 73-57 and scored 11 overall.
“Angel’s contributions in every quarter matter but … we just didn’t get her touches in the third quarter,” Mulkey said. “We try to spread the wealth around, we want everybody to score, but when you come out and have five or six empty possessions, find who needs to touch the ball. In the third quarter we didn’t do a good job.”
KK Deans, a West Virginia transfer, matched her career high with 30 points, for the Gators (14-13, 3-11), who have lost five straight. Jordyn Merritt and Ra Shaya Kyle both added 12.
Overall LSU shot 53% to 43% for Florida, which was 17 of 20 from the foul line, outscoring the Tigers by 12.
Reese, who made all four of her shots and Carson, who hit a couple of 3s, both had eight points for a 27-23 lead after one quarter.
In the second quarter Florida was just 3 of 17 and was outscored 20-6 to trail 47-31. Carson had 17 points and Reese had 14 with 13 rebounds as the duo combined to match Florida’s total.
UP NEXT
LSU, gunning to match the 2004-05 team with a 27-1 record in the regular season, is at Vanderbilt on Thursday before closing the regular season at home on Sunday against Mississippi State.
Florida is home against Alabama on Thursday.
