LSU All-American Angel Reese is nicknamed “Bayou Barbie” and has the glamorous appearance to go along with it, wearing lip gloss and eyelash extensions on the court and having her nails done for every game. She even gets a crown from a teammate during pregame introductions.
A report from SponsorUnited showed that Reese has the most name, image and likeness deals of any college basketball player in the country — male or female — and her sponsorship deals that include McDonald’s, Xfinity, Wingstop and Outback Steakhouse are part of a lavish lifestyle.
Her brand will be even more appealing after the way she played in the second half Friday in LSU’s 79-72 win over top-seeded Virginia Tech in a women’s Final Four semifinal.
Reese had 24 points on 11-for-19 shooting and grabbed 12 rebounds as LSU rallied from a 12-point third-quarter deficit at a sold-out American Airlines Center. Waiting in Sunday’s final will be Iowa, which ended South Carolina’s 42-game winning streak with a 77-73 victory in the second semifinal as national player of the year Caitlin Clark scored 41 points.
With all of the women’s college basketball world watching, LSU advanced to the national championship game for the first time — on the men’s or women’s side — by outscoring Virginia Tech 29-13 in the fourth quarter.
In the process, Reese broke the NCAA record for most double-doubles in a season, adding her 33rd while helping LSU outscore Virginia Tech 54-14 in the paint. The Associated Press reported that the transfer from Maryland became the first player to have 100 points, 70 rebounds, 10 blocks and 10 steals in a single NCAA Tournament.
“It’s like a dream,” Reese said. “It still hasn’t hit me that I’m at the Final Four. I’m not even believing this right now. It’s crazy how much my life has changed in one year, how much I’ve grown on and off the court.”
LSU (33-2) was appearing in its sixth Final Four, but not even the great Seimone Augustus or Sylvia Fowles — who have six WNBA titles and 14 WNBA All-Star selections between them — could ever get LSU to that final game. On the men’s side, neither could Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal.
“We just wanted to make history,” Reese said. “They supported us in everything we’ve done. We had Seimone out [at the game]. I’m not sure Sylvia was here, but they support us in everything we do.”
LSU (33-2), at the Final Four for the first time since 2008, trailed 59-50 entering the fourth quarter, but Reese’s layup early in the period brought the Tigers to within two, and another layup not long after cut Virginia Tech’s lead to one. When freshman Flau’Jae Johnson got a steal and layup with 5:44 remaining, LSU had its first lead since the second quarter.
Reese extended the lead to 68-62 with a putback of her own miss with 4:20 remaining, then added two free throws to make it an eight-point advantage. Her layup with 1:36 left gave LSU a nine-point advantage and sealed the deal.
Reese got plenty of help from fifth-year senior guard Alexis Morris, who previously played at Baylor (under coach Kim Mulkey), Rutgers and Texas A&M. Morris, who hails from Beaumont, scored 10 of her game-high 27 points in the fourth quarter in her return to Texas as LSU continued its meteoric turnaround under Mulkey following a nine-win season two years ago.
“It’s crazy I’m sitting up here. It’s crazy we’re getting ready to play for a national championship,” Mulkey said. “I keep wanting to call somebody and go tell me how we did this in two years. I don’t know.”
As Morris dribbled out the clock, LSU players converged and shared hugs and chest bumps. Morris then went over to the media table, hopped up and lifted her arms in celebration, encouraging the raucous crowd of LSU fans to get even louder.
It has been quite a comeback for Morris, who was released from Baylor’s team two months before the start of the 2018-19 season for a violation of team rules. Now, she has been reunited with Mulkey, who on Sunday will look to add another national championship to the three that she won in 21 seasons at Baylor.
“I’m super excited that we won, but if you know me, I’m never satisfied. I’m hungry, I’m greedy,” Morris said. “I want to win it all so I can complete the story, complete the comeback.”
Mulkey, who became just the fourth head coach to take a team to the national championship game within her first two seasons at a school, offered her take on the whole saga that Morris has endured.
“When I dismissed Alexis from Baylor, it was just a coach decision, one of those tough ones you have to make,” Mulkey said. “But it wasn’t like you didn’t love her, but it was the right decision. Not just for my team at Baylor at the time, it was the right decision for that young lady.
“And when I got the LSU job, she wanted to come back. And the things that she can tell you that you’ve probably already read, I just need Coach in my life. I need her discipline. I need her tough love. I need her direction.”
LSU held the Hokies to 2-for-10 shooting in the fourth quarter while the Tigers were 11-for-18 shooting from the field against Virginia Tech’s zone defense. This was an LSU team that has nine newcomers, but they rallied together to help produce the second-largest comeback win in the Final Four over the past decade, according to ESPN.
“I thought both teams looked tired,” Mulkey said. “Their adrenaline’s high, and they’re all emotional, both teams trying to do the best they can. I told them in the timeout, I said, your conditioning’s going to play a factor in this game. I said, you can’t run the floor slower than them. You have to beat them down the floor.”
Virginia Tech junior guard Georgia Amoore, a 5-6 dynamo from Australia, broke the record for 3-pointers made in a single NCAA tournament when she hit her 23rd long-range shot of the competition with 6:49 left in the third quarter. She would finish with 24 triples for the tournament, but sole ownership of the record lasted only a couple of hours, as Clark tied it in the second semifinal.
With Morris defending her, Amoore was held to 17 points on 4-for-17 shooting from the field and 4-for-15 shooting from 3-point range. As a team, Virginia Tech shot 29% (9-for-31) from long range against LSU’s stifling man-to-man defense.
Mulkey had preached this week about how the SEC was disrespected, but there will be no problems with that now after a dominant performance against a Virginia Tech team that was making its first Final Four appearance. Entering Friday, teams in this tournament were 43-0 when leading by nine or more points after three quarters, according to The Associated Press, but LSU put together a 15-0 run in the final quarter to put an end to that streak.
Mulkey has gained much attention for her flamboyant outfits, and she made her grand entrance Friday wearing a carnation pink top with ruffles on the sleeves. But in her second season at LSU, she has turned around the program quicker than anyone — including her — could have ever imagined was possible.
That’s because Reese is arguably the best player in women’s basketball not named Caitlin Clark or Aliyah Boston. The 6-3 forward averaged 22.3 points and 17.3 rebounds through the first four rounds of the NCAA Tournament. In the opening round, she tied Fowles’ LSU NCAA Tournament record with 34 points.
While Reese gets dolled up off the court, she is rough and tough in the post, and in the final two quarters she got the best of the much-hyped matchup of All-Americans against Virginia Tech 6-6 center Elizabeth Kitley. Kitley, a two-time ACC Player of the Year, had 18 points and 12 rebounds for her school-record 57th career double-double, but the defense of Reese and LaDazhia Williams held her to six points in the second half.
“I think we did a really good job for the most part in the first two quarters of limiting them to one shot, and I think we gave up a lot of offensive rebounds when they were come back in the fourth, and that definitely hurt us,” Kitley said.
Williams also made a huge contribution offensively, scoring 16 points on 7-for-9 shooting.
Reese bounced back from a 3-for-15 shooting performance in the Elite Eight win over Miami, a game in which she scored just 13 points. In that game, LSU shot only 30.2% from the field and was 1-for-12 from 3-point range, prompting Mulkey to field a question in a news conference about whether the basketballs seemed overinflated or if there was something wrong with the rubber.
“It’s a little bit different,” Mulkey said.
Her team had no problems shooting against a Virginia Tech defense that was allowing 57.1 points per game and holding opponents to 38% shooting from the field.
Going into Friday, Virginia Tech (31-5) had trailed for just 9 minutes, 27 seconds in the NCAA Tournament — all against Ohio State in the Elite Eight. LSU led most of the first half and was up 32-23 in the second quarter, when the game swung in Virginia Tech’s favor.
Kitley and Kayana Traylor combined for all of the Hokies’ points during an 11-0 run to close the half as Virginia Tech took a 34-32 lead into halftime. Kitley finished the half with 12 points and eight rebounds vs. 10 points and two rebounds for Reese.
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