Five takeaways from LSU women’s basketball’s win over Texas A&M

LSU took a trip to College Station to face Texas A&M on Monday night and came away with an emphatic 81-58 win.

The victory makes it four straight wins for Kim Mulkey and LSU after the Tigers lost back-to-back games for the first time since Mulkey’s first year.

LSU was a heavy favorite and took care of business. Mulkey’s group hasn’t been consistent all year, but they could be peaking at the right time.

After the win, LSU sits at 22-4 on the year with Auburn up next and just four regular season games left.

Here are five takeaways from the night.

Bounceback continues

LSU went through a rough patch in the back half of January.

LSU finished the month 2-3. The Tigers aren’t accustomed to five game stretches like that under Mulkey.

Since then, they’ve begun to figure it out. Mulkey has a better understanding of what rotations work and the defense has looked better too.

That trend continued on Monday night with LSU winning its fourth straight game by double-digits.

Flau'Jae Johnson's big night

LSU’s guard rotation has looked different in recent weeks with Mulkey figuring out the best way to use Hailey Van Lith and Last-Tear Poa, but it was Flau’Jae Johnson who stood out on Monday night

The sophomore guard scored 20 while going 7-11 from the field and was perfect from the free throw line.

With Van Lith going 1-5 from three, LSU needed Johnson’s best. Johnson had nine rebounds and five assists to go along with the points.

Stellar defense

More than anything, Mulkey has harped on the defense this year. She knows this team has scorers, but its the defense which has lacked consistency.

Improvement continued on Monday night. LSU held A&M to below 40% from the field while having its best three-point defense performance of the season.

LSU still needs to prove it can do it against a legit offense, but the unit is trending up.

Still in position to move up

A win over Texas A&M isn’t going to be at the top of the resume, but LSU didn’t lose anything either.

If the Tigers want to improve seeding, they need to run the table in regular season against opponent they’re supposed to beat.

A dominant win such as this is what you want to see against a team of the Aggies’ caliber.

LSU will look for more of the same against Auburn.

LSU wins in transition

In the past, Mulkey said basketball can be boiled down to who wins in transition.

LSU did that on Monday night, outscoring A&M by a sizeable margin in fast break points.

Along with the defense, we continue to see Mulkey’s points of emphasis improve. Her message is getting through to this team.

Story originally appeared on LSU Tigers Wire