LSU women’s basketball will play against the Duke Blue Devils in the NCAA Sweet 16 on Friday night at the Golden 1 Center, home of the Sacramento Kings. The Tigers are seeded No. 2 and Duke is seeded No. 3 for this game.
This matchup marks the seventh meeting between LSU and Duke, with four previous encounters taking place during NCAA Tournament play. Each team has won twice in those tournament meetings. LSU previously secured wins over Duke in a Sweet 16 game in 2000 and an Elite Eight contest in 2005, while Duke defeated LSU in a Final Four game in 2006 and a second-round matchup in 2010.
Earlier this season, LSU played at Cameron Indoor Stadium as part of the ACC/SEC Challenge, overcoming an early deficit to win by a score of 93-77.
The upcoming contest is scheduled for a 9 p.m. CT tip-off on ESPN with Beth Mowins providing play-by-play commentary, Debbie Antonelli as analyst, and Jess Sims reporting from courtside. Radio coverage will be available through the LSU Sports Radio Network with Patrick Wright and Shaeeta Williams calling the action.
Coach Kim Mulkey has led LSU to five consecutive seasons hosting NCAA Tournament games—a program record—and holds a personal record of nine wins and one loss at home national tournament games with LSU. Her overall coaching career includes appearances at eighteen Sweet Sixteens as head coach or assistant, thirty-two total including both roles, and her teams have reached four straight Sweet Sixteens under her leadership at LSU.
Mulkey recently achieved her milestone 150th win at LSU after defeating Jacksonville, becoming the fastest head coach to reach that mark for the program by accomplishing it within just 175 games coached. Since beginning her coaching career as an assistant at Louisiana Tech in 1985, she has missed only two NCAA Tournaments: once when reaching the WNIT Finals (2002-03) and once due to COVID-related cancellation (2019-20). As a head coach, Mulkey’s record stands at sixty-eight wins and nineteen losses in national tournament play—ranking fourth all-time for victories among coaches.
LSU set its sixteenth one-hundred-point game this season against Texas Tech—a Division I record—and currently leads all teams nationally by averaging ninety-five point three points per game over thirty-four contests this year. This scoring rate would surpass Georgia’s Southeastern Conference record set during their thirty-two-game season in nineteen eighty-six.
