I was laughing really hard at Kim's halftime interview when she said this was "basketball played at the highest level." I'm sorry, but that is not what I saw. With the exception of Raven's exceptional game and Joyce's stalwart play -- those two are tremendous basketball players -- the game looked pretty ragged. Tessa, Tan'iya and Madina shot poorly, but LSU's defense didn't seem to have much to do with that. Jada Milaysia and Amiya shot well, which surprised me a bit. I kind of expected Raven and Tani'ya to shut Jada down and Madina to shut down Amiya. Of course, Milaysia is like a force of nature and a joy to watch, even if she torches her own team while making wonderful individual plays.
There are great playmakers on both teams and they can make some acrobatic baskets. But LSU spent so much time just pounding the ball on the perimeter waiting for a one-v-one opening. LSU seems barely to have an offense scheme beyond that. The boxscore says LSU got 16 assists, but that's hard to believe. I didn't keep count myself, but I can easily believe SC had 17, and Raven personally had 8, which was easy to see.
My conclusion is that SC endured some 'playground bully' ball from LSU in the first half, outplayed the Tigers in the 3rd quarter and held them off in the 4th. On to the next opponent.