DURHAM, North Carolina — Kara Lawson and Kim Mulkey's approaches to non-conference planning are almost as opposite as their approaches to game-day fashion; Mulkey, now in his fifth season as LSU's head coach, prefers to use the non-conference slate as a chance to build his team's confidence and chemistry in the face of SEC challenges. Meanwhile, Lawson, who is in her sixth season at Duke, prefers her team to face tough opponents early and often.
On Thursday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium, in front of a crowd of WNBA scouts and NBA commissioner Adam Silver, the ACC/SEC Challenge put these two disparate styles and philosophies on a collision course. While Duke started strong, No. 5 LSU eventually escaped with a 93–77 victory.
Score one for the colorful pantsuits and bunnies.
The Tigers made a historic run through their first eight games of the season, scoring over 100 points in every game for the first time in NCAA DI history. But it was difficult to know how to benefit from this, given the (lack of) quality of their opposition. And things looked turbulent for LSU early on. Duke swung to an 11-1 lead in the first 2:43 of the game, quite a feat considering Duke is known for its aggressive tackling during the Lawson era and has already had five quarters this season in which the team scored fewer than 11 points in 10 minutes.
But it didn't take long for LSU to stabilize. Although Duke extended its lead to 17-3, Milaisia Fulwili and Kate Koval came off the bench and provided an immediate spark, scoring 11 points to help cut Duke's lead to four at the end of the first frame.
LSU turned on the turbojet engines in the second quarter, outscoring Duke 31-19 to take an eight-point lead at halftime. Duke never got closer than seven the rest of the game.
The most impressive thing about LSU is their depth. Having seen them in person, it's hard to argue with the notion that they have the best backcourt in the country. Fulwiley has the speed, agility and creativity that he can come off the bench and immediately put opponents on their heels. She scored eight points in the first quarter and finished with 16 points, five rebounds and three assists.
Junior guard Mikayla Williams took the lead in the third quarter, scoring 10 of her 14 points. Flower'ja Johnson then finished it off, rescuing a slow offensive game with 11 points in the fourth, pushing her to 18 points, three assists and five rebounds. Then there was Amiyah Joyner, who plays and looks well above her reported 6-foot-2 height, adding 14 points and five rebounds, and 6-foot-5 Koval, who added 13 points, three rebounds and three steals off the bench. In the second quarter, it was freshman reserve Grace Knox herself who scored seven unanswered points in less than a minute to give the Tigers control of the game for good. Truly, Tigers are relentless.
“We play with a lot of talent, we play with a lot of passion, that’s the LSU brand,” Mulkey said.
On paper, this looks like a disaster for Duke. The Blue Devils started the year in 7th place, but fell out of the top 25 by mid-November. Lawson likes to schedule strong opponents so she can see the flaws in her team early and work on them, and with the Blue Devils currently 3-6 and on a four-game losing streak, that to-do list is getting quite long as ACC play gets ready to start.
But while Duke has suffered several disappointing losses this season, the infamous second-half collapse against West Virginia in particular, with only five players available – this wasn't one of them. It was Duke's third game against top-five opponents in eight days, and they looked much better in this game than in any other game at the Players Era tournament in Vegas during Feast Week.
“First of all, we have to give credit to Duke. This is the best I've seen Duke play all year. They attacked us like white people attacking rice,” Malki said.
Especially considering the opponent, it was Duke's best offensive performance of the season. Overall, the Blue Devils shot 50%, a season-high and a season-best 61.8% shooting from the field. Even though they were outnumbered compared to LSU, there were plenty of bright spots in Duke's front court – Toby Fournier scored 14 points in just 22 minutes, Delaney Thomas added 14 points, and Arianna Roberson and Riley Nelson, who made their Duke debuts this season after missing last year with injuries, added a combined 21 points off the bench. The Blue Devils do need more shooting from the guards, but the hope is that freshman Emily Skinner, a high-profile recruit Lawson is optimistic about, can help on that front once she's healthy.
Overall, Lawson was absolutely thrilled with how her team performed.
“We were inconsistent in our competitive thinking. This is a fact. If you look back at some of our games, we see an inconsistency there,” Lawson said. “For starters, we need to do it for longer periods of time and do it throughout the game. That's why I'm so optimistic because I saw it tonight, right? You can't control how you shoot. You can't control what happens, you can't control the calls. position to win games.”
Here are some more notes from the exciting night in Durham:
Flow'J Johnson gets her revenge
When Johnson chirped to Lawson during LSU's fourth-quarter play, it was clear there was a personal component to the game for the senior. In the press, Mulkey shed some light on why this happened.
“I was happy for Flower'je. You know, she didn't have a good USA Basketball experience with Kara this summer, so she circled this date. You're nervous because you think she's going to try to come here and try to do too much. And I was proud of the way she carried herself,” Mulkey said.
Lawson, who was just named head coach of the USA women's basketball team for the upcoming Olympic cycle, was the head coach of Team USA at the 2025 FIBA Women's AmeriCup this summer. With the WNBA season in full swing, the team was filled with college players, including Johnson. The team won gold, but Johnson's playing time was inconsistent and the experience clearly affected her.
“When you become a coach, whether it’s USA Basketball, LSU or Duke, the players aren’t always going to be happy and satisfied,” Mulkey said. “And Flau'jae lost a lot of confidence this summer playing for USA Basketball, and it's my job when I get her back on campus to get her back to where she can help us do what we need to do.”
When asked about Mulkey's comments to the press, Lawson did not go into detail about what was going on with Johnson.
“My experience was good: I wasn't just coaching Flau'je, but I was coaching all the players, all 12 players, putting a team together and training for 10 days and then going to play in a tournament,” Lawson said. “And our college players did an incredible job playing against teams that had professional players, and we can win gold. So I’m just really proud of this group.”
MiLaysia Fulwiley is still a work in progress.
The game was full of highlights for LSU guard Mylaysia Fulwili, a South Carolina transfer known for her agility and speed.
But Mulkey said in the press that Fulwili still has a long way to go before she is in the starting lineup and truly running the team. Mulkey especially wants Fulwili to work on protecting the ball.
“Lay transferred to LSU because she wanted to learn to play point guard. She wanted to be more in control of the ball. It's a work in progress because you don't want to take away her talent in the game, you know, and I'm trying to teach her, there were times when she would take the ball and wrap it around herself and now is not the time to do that. But she wants to learn. She's a spark for us, but she wants to be more than just a spark,” Mulkey said.
“She played a lot of minutes tonight. She's happy. She's happy. When you have players who can do things like she can with the ball in her hands, you never want to take that away from her. But you teach them, you can't have a lot of turnovers and no turnovers. You want to have a two-to-one ratio, and that's part of teaching her to get her to understand. I think she had about five assists, probably had two or three assists. It should be the other way around. But she's a pleasure to coach.”
Duke doesn't panic
There's no way to sugarcoat the situation: starting the season 3-6 is bad, no matter who the opponent is. But the Blue Devils didn't appear in the media talking like a team in free fall.
“Honestly, I'm very proud of this team. We're growing,” Ashlon Jackson, who had 16 points, three assists and three rebounds, told reporters. “We're very uncomfortable right now, which is good because like I said, everyone was uncomfortable in March, so the team that's most comfortable being uncomfortable is going to be successful.”
Lawson, for her part, remained confident (at least publicly) that her team was moving in the right direction.
“There are ups and downs and you have to keep pushing. And the adversity right now is tough and it's been a long time, you know, the length of the adversity, but we have a lot of faith in each other and there's a lot of positivity here. If you come into our practice, you won't feel like we're in the middle of adversity,” Lawson said. “He’s loud, positive, communicative. So these are my keys.
“As long as we do that and execute and try to do what we try, then, you know, I feel good about where we are. But it would be nice to win, so we'll try to do that on Sunday.”
