Angel Reese watches LSU score 131 points in historic 109-point rout of Texas Southern

With alumna Angel Reese in attendance as the guest of honor, LSU women’s basketball put on a historic show with the NCAA’s largest win ever recorded in a game between two Division I opponents. 

Defeating Texas Southern 131-22 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Thursday, Nov. 5, the Tigers limited their opponent to the fewest points allowed by a Kim Mulkey-led team and stacked a second consecutive record-setting win. 

They’d previously set a program record in their season opener on Nov. 2 by dominating Southeastern Louisiana 129–35, a 94-point win. 

The No. 9-ranked Tigers had seven different players finish in double-digit scoring on Thursday, while no one from Texas Southern reached the 10-point mark.

Jada Williams, a transfer guard from Iowa State and Arizona before that, had 18 points and seven assists after scoring five points in the team’s season opener. Senior guard Mikaylah Williams scored 20 points. 

“We just some hoopers,” Williams told reporters after the win. “Everyobdy gonna hoop. Every game, it’s going to be somebody else. … Honestly, this is the best team I ever played on. So I’m just out there having the time of my life.” 

The teams only traded leads through the first two minutes until senior MiLaysia Fulwiley put LSU ahead with a jumper at the 7:58 mark, and they never trailed again. Fulwiley finished with 15 points at six assists. 

LSU started the second half leading 65-13 after besting Texas Southern 40-0 in the second quarter. 

Anna Minaeva, a 6-foot-5 freshman from Russia, made her college debut with a game-high 21 points in 20 minutes off the bench. 

Reese praised the 17-year-old during a mid-game interview on the broadcast, saying she hopes the Atlanta Dream can land Minaeva in the WNBA draft so they can be teammates. 

Texas Southern vs. LSU highlights

Why was Angel Reese at LSU-Texas Southern? 

Reese, the 2026 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year, was recognized during halftime by LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry. She was presented with flowers featuring a sash that said “Bayou Barbie,” and a golden crown – a nod to the brand she built as she led the Tigers to their first NCAA championship win in 2023 as the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. 

Joining Mulkey, Williams and Minaeva in the postgame news conference, Mulkey said the alumna shared her plans to attend the game weeks ago because it would give her an opportunity to support her alma mater and her brother, Julian Reese, a power forward/center who now plays for the New Orleans Pelicans on a two-way contract. 

Angel Reese also mentioned it being a “big weekend,” with LSU football facing Alabama on Saturday. 

Thursday’s historic win for LSU women’s basketball was attended by an announced crowd of 9,591 fans.

“This is home for me,” Reese said. “The crowd loves me here and I just appreciate that, and being able to see women’s basketball continue and to grow – Coach Mulkey has done a great job continuing this. There hasn’t been a drop off. The fans continue to show up. They’re the same fans that I’ve seen three, four years ago.” 

Just a little postgame fun with our girl 🫶 pic.twitter.com/Xh1N3Zb0Pj

— LSU Women’s Basketball (@LSUwbkb) November 6, 2026

The blowout was nothing completely new for Mulkey, who also led Baylor to a then-unprecedented win over fellow D-I program Winthrop with a final score of 140–32 on Dec. 15, 2016.

“Any player who plays under Coach Mulkey, I think that makes it easier going into the (WNBA) because you’re coached so hard in college,” Reese said. “When you go from four-hour practices to an hour, I’m like, ‘Well, anymore? Like, what else do we have?’ ”

Mulkey said the only thing that might have altered Reese’s self-prescribed homecoming plans was if the Dream won the WNBA championship, which they lost 68-63 in the league’s first Game 7 on Oct. 31 in San Francisco. It was the most viewed playoff game in WNBA history. 

Reese posed for countless photos with fans, LSU personnel and even cheerleaders while also celebrating with the team after their historic victory. 

That’s what Mulkey hopes the rest of her players will do when they leave. 

“To be proud of your alma mater,” Mulkey said when asked what she hopes her team learns from Reese. “For them to see her walk in that locker room and they all had her shirt on, they (see) that they can be Angel one day.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Angel Reese watches LSU score 131 points in historic 109-point rout of Texas Southern