{"id":199948,"date":"2026-03-21T02:25:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T02:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/199948\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T02:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T02:25:08","slug":"johnson-and-williams-pace-lsu-past-jacksonville-116-58-in-opening-round-of-march-madness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/199948\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnson and Williams pace LSU past Jacksonville 116-58 in opening round of March Madness"},"content":{"rendered":"

BATON ROUGE, La. \u2013 Flau\u2019jae Johnson scored 20 points, Mikaylah Williams had 18 points and 10 assists, and No. 2 seed LSU easily surpassed it\u2019s nation-leading scoring average with a 116-58 victory over 15th seed Jacksonville on Friday night in the first round of March Madness<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was amazing. That\u2019s what we need, and that\u2019s who we are,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWhen everybody\u2019s clicking, we\u2019re great.\u201d<\/p>\n

LSU (28-5), which entered the game averaging 94.5 points per game, scored 100 or more for the 15th time this season, matching an NCAA Division I record set by Long Beach State during the 1986-87 season. The Tigers\u2019 point total also set a school record for an NCAA Tournament game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe offense is not surprising. We\u2019ve seen that all year,\u201d LSU coach Kim Mulkey said. \u201cI\u2019ve got a lot of scorers out there.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Tigers shot 60%, but played some defense, too. They had a season-high 18 steals and finished with a 38-13 advantage in points off of turnovers. LSU outrebounded Jackson 45-21.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have athleticism, speed, and quickness with certain ones on the floor, but we also have strength,\u201d said Mulkey, a four-time national title winner with a reputation for emphasizing defense and rebounding. \u201cSo, get after it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jada Richard scored 17 points and four steals, and ZaKiyah Johnson added 16 points for the Tigers, who had seven players score at least 10 points. MiLaysia Fulwiley scored 13 points.<\/p>\n

Carmaya Bowman scored 14 points and Tatum Brown scored 10 for Jacksonville (24-9), the Atlantic Sun Conference tournament champions, who were making just their second NCAA Tournament appearance. <\/p>\n

\u201cLSU is a good team, right? Really good team,\u201d Jacksonville coach Special Jennings said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been a national championship contender. I just thought we got away from the things that makes us really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Priscilla Williams, who was the Dolphins\u2019 leading scorer this season, scored five points in the game\u2019s first eight minutes, but left with an injury and did not return. After the game, her arm was in a sling.<\/p>\n

Jennings was \u201cnot all the way sure\u201d what happened to her top scorer, \u201cbut I know that she\u2019s out for a while.\u201d <\/p>\n

LSU began the game on a 14-0 run highlighted by Williams\u2019 3-point play on a fast-break layup as she was fouled and her 3-point shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were itching to play basketball,\u201d Williams said. \u201cEverybody was excited. The energy was great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flau\u2019jae Johnson\u2019s fast-break basket and free throw made it 21-4 less than five minutes into the game.<\/p>\n

Bella Hines\u2019 transition 3 made it 27-7 just more than six minutes in and the quarter ended with the Tigers up 34-14.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were uncharacteristic in the beginning,\u201d .<\/p>\n

Jacksonville was able to match LSU nearly basket for basket during much of the second quarter, but still couldn\u2019t get within 20 points.<\/p>\n

The Tigers then closed the period with six straight points, capped by ZaKiyah Johnson\u2019s fast-break layup set up by Williams\u2019 steal near mid court, and LSU led 64-36 at halftime.<\/p>\n

During the third quarter, Flau\u2019jae Johnson\u2019s 3 ignited a 9-0 run highlighted by Williams\u2019 behind-the-back pass to set up Jada Richard\u2019s fast-break layup. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what she\u2019s capable of,\u201d Johnson said of Williams. \u201cShe\u2019s a triple-double type of player. It\u2019s nothing new to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

That spurt made it 84-46, and it was 94-48 after Richard\u2019s jumper as the period ended.<\/p>\n

The only question after that was how close the Tigers might get to their season high of 126 point in a game at New Orleans in December.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

LSU hosts a second-round game against the winner of Friday night\u2019s matchup between No. 7 seed Texas Tech and 10th seed Villanova.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP March Madness bracket: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ncaa-womens-bracket<\/a> and coverage: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/march-madness<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BATON ROUGE, La. \u2013 Flau\u2019jae Johnson scored 20 points, Mikaylah Williams had 18 points and 10 assists, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[92432,92433,116,118,117,92431,110],"class_list":["post-199948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-bella-hines","tag-flaujae-johnson","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jada-richard","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}