BATON ROUGE, La. —
Angel Reese balked at the suggestion that LSU could have its hands full with a Middle Tennessee front court that includes players listed at 6-foot-6 and 6-5.
“They have to go against Angel Reese, Aneesah Morrow, and Aalyah Del Rosario,” Reese shot back, eliciting a grin from teammate Flau’Jae Johnson, who sat beside her at the dais Saturday. “So they have to work on that and figure that out first.
“Secondly, we focus on our matchups, of course, in our film room,” Reese continued. “It’s going to be a team effort. It’s not going to be just two matchups. We have great guards, too. It’s going to be a team focus. If they focus on two players, they’re in trouble.”
The defending national champion and third-seeded Tigers (29-5) will be on their home court when they meet No. 11 seed Middle Tennessee (30-4) on Sunday in the second round of the women’s NCAA Tournament.
The Blue Raiders are on a 20-game winning streak after overcoming an 18-point, first-half deficit in the first round on Friday.
The Blue Raiders’ starting center is Anastasiia Boldyreva, listed at 6-6. Her backup is the 6-5 Iullia Grabovskaia, who sometimes is paired with Boldyreva in the front court. The two Russians have combined to block 108 shots this season.
That presents an intriguing matchup with LSU. Its top two scorers this season have been the 6-3 Reese (19 points per game) and fellow post player Morrow (16.5), who is 6-1.
Boldyreva sounds eager for the test that Reese will present.
“She’s a highly athletic player, obviously,” Boldyreva said. “She physical, really fast. … We just know she’s all around the rim, and we’ve got to try to match it.”
Boldyreva also has noticed the emotion Reese plays with, and is bracing for some psychological gamesmanship. Reese is widely remembered for when LSU was on the verge of defeating the Hawkeyes in last season’s national title game.
“It’s always difficult because they get the (home) crowd and they get hyped,” Boldyreva said. “We just need to not get sucked into talking back or being chippy. We just have to stay in our game.”
