Mitchell, No. 24 LSU women, turn back Tide 79-78 in OT

Posted February 25, 2018 6:00 am

The Associated Press

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Ayana Mitchell scored a career-high 27 points on 11-of-13 shooting with 12 rebounds and a game-saving blocked shot with a second left and LSU defeated Alabama 79-78 in overtime in the regular-season finale on Sunday.

Chloe Jackson led the Tigers (19-8, 11-5), which secured the No. 4 seed and a double-bye in the Southeastern Conference Tournament that begins Wednesday, with 31 points. The Crimson Tide (17-12, 7-9) is the eighth seed and plays No. 9 seed Kentucky on Thursday.

A jumper by Alabama's Ashley Williams made it a one-point game with 1:24 to play. The Tigers missed two shots on their possessions, giving the Tide 29 seconds. Alabama missed three shots but got three offensive rebounds and called a timeout with 9.4 seconds remaining. Williams took the ball inside but Mitchell snuffed the shot in the lane, grabbed the ball and threw it up court as time expired.

Hannah Cooks contested jumper to the right of the lane put Alabama up 70-68 with 3.5 seconds left in regulation. The Tide committed a non-shooting foul with 1.9 to go before Khayla Pointer inbounded the ball deep to Mitchell in the lane for the turnaround tying shot with less than a second to go.

Cook led Alabama, which was down 16 with less than a minute left in the third quarter, with 18 points and Williams had 15 with a career-high 16 rebounds.

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