DALLAS — LSU kept telling anyone who would listen that the Tigers had good shooters. Sure, they hadn’t been hitting their jumpers for most of the NCAA Tournament, making only 19.7 percent on 3-pointers through the first five games, but they were convinced that Sunday would be their day.
It would have to be, considering the way they expected Iowa to defend them, sinking into the paint and daring the perimeter players to beat them. Kim Mulkey said it didn’t matter how many more boards they secured than the Hawkeyes — look at what happened to South Carolina despite a 24-rebound advantage in the national semifinal — LSU would need to hit shots from the perimeter.
No one took that directive to heart more than Jasmine Carson.
Carson had scored only 11 points in the tournament before Sunday. She hadn’t made a basket in the last three games and had been taken out of the starting lineup in the second round after starting all but one game during the regular season. But there was never any lack of confidence, not from Carson, and certainly not from her teammates.
‘”She had a little drought, but that’s what she does,” Kateri Poole said about her teammate. “Shooters shoot, and she stuck with it, and we all gave her the confidence today. She needed that.”
The LSU senior…
