4 days Ago
Eastern Kentucky forward Raphaela Toussaint (5) boxes out against LSU forward Jersey Wolfenbarger (8) in the second period of the season opener on Monday, November 4, 2024 at the PMAC in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save On Wednesday, the LSU women's basketball team needed a spark of offense so it could match the sudden long-range shooting groove that Tulane had found at other end. One of its transfers helped provide it.
Jersey Wolfenbarger , an Arkansas transfer who sat out all of last season, scored nine of her 15 points in the second quarter of LSU's win over the Green Wave , helping the No. 7 Tigers (6-0) counter the six 3-pointers that Tulane hit in that frame. LSU could've lost its double-digit lead.
But the three points it added to that advantage in the second quarter — coupled with the 10 it tacked onto it in the third — helped it build a lead large enough to withstand the Wave's late rally. "Well, if you combine Sa'Myah Smith and Jersey (Wolfenbarger)," coach Kim Mulkey said, "I can't ask them to do any more than they did tonight. Look at their stats.
I'll take that any day." Mulkey has said that she thinks this LSU team, her fourth, is deeper than her third. But in their first six games, these Tigers scored 37 fewer bench points than last year's group did over that same stretch of its season.
Wolfenbarger's production is a large reason why that discrepancy isn't greater. Over the last four games, the 6-foot-5 forward has accounted for 41% of LSU's bench points. She's scored in double figures in at least three of her last four games for just the second time in her career.
She was also the Tigers' third-leading scorer on Wednesday, a night in which she notched 15 of the 20 points that LSU received from its bench. The Tigers have not yet gotten any production from key contributor Mjracle Sheppard , a Mississippi State transfer guard who is expected to debut next week after sitting the first six games of the season with a stress reaction injury. But two others — transfer Kailyn Gilbert and Aalyah Del Rosario — have recently battled some offensive struggles.
Over their last three games, the pair of bench contributors have combined to score only 14 points on 4-of-24 shooting. Del Rosario, a sophomore, logged just four total minutes of action across LSU's wins over Murray State and Tulane. On Wednesday, the Wave outscored the Tigers by eight points in the 13 minutes Gilbert saw the floor.
LSU won Wolfenbarger's 26 minutes by 17 points. "Obviously, (Wolfenbarger's) size is a big part of my attraction to take her as a transfer," coach Kim Mulkey said before the season at SEC media day . "She didn't play at all last year.
She's got to get back in the flow of understanding what we're trying to do offensively and defensively and relax and become comfortable instead of thinking too much." In the 65 games Wolfenbarger played at Arkansas, she converted just 39% of her field goal attempts and connected on only 27 of the 120 shots (23%) she took from beyond the arc. Remove those 3-pointers from her shot profile, and the junior would've shot 48% from the field.
Through six games at LSU, Wolfenbarger hasn't taken a single 3-pointer, and her shooting efficiency has ballooned to 58%. On Wednesday, she attempted all 12 of her field goals Wednesday from the paint, and three of the four most productive LSU lineups featured Wolfenbarger. A grouping of her and four starters — Shayeann Day-Wilson, Flau'jae Johnson, Mikaylah Williams and Aneesah Morrow — outscored Tulane by 10 points in the eight minutes it saw the floor.
"I'm getting more comfortable with knowing my strengths," Wolfenbarger said Monday. "Obviously, I want to get out there and be more effective on the boards. I think that's something that I can contribute more of.
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