SPOKANE, Washington — Kailyn Gilbert was, by her own admission, getting cooked.
Zoe Brooks had made several tough shots and it sure looked as if the N.C. State star was about to make another with 90 seconds left Friday night. But when Brooks lifted the ball, Gilbert saw her opportunity.
“I was like, ‘I can’t let her get an easy look,” the LSU guard said.
The third-shortest player on LSU’s team, Gilbert leaped and gave the ball a mighty swat. It was only the second block of her career, and it saved LSU’s season.
‘When that play happened,” said the 5-foot-8 Gilbert, ‘I knew we were going to win the game.’
It might seem a given for LSU to be playing deep into March, the 80-73 win over N.C. State sending the Tigers to the Elite Eight for a third consecutive season. But until Gilbert’s block, LSU looked very much like a team bound for the offseason.
It had blown its six-point lead from late in the third quarter. Flau’jae Johnson couldn’t buy a bucket and was on the bench for the last five minutes of the game after getting raked across the eye. Mikaylah Williams, so clutch from 3-point range in the first two games of the NCAA tournament, couldn’t get one to drop.
The Wolfpack had LSU on its heels, and the Tigers knew it.
‘Nobody likes to lose, so I talked to my teammates in the huddle and told them we’ve got to take our matchups personally,” Aneesah Morrow said. ‘We have to be able to dominate, and we have to be able to make defensive stops. And we did that toward the end of the game.”
At 5-foot-8, blocks are not a regular part of Gilbert’s repertoire.
‘I could block shots,’ she said, smiling. ‘I just don’t choose to.’
But she wasn’t about to let Brooks, whose 21 points led the Wolfpack, score again. So she jumped and sent the ball flying toward the baseline. Teammate Shayeann Day-Wilson sprinted for the ball, snagging it right before it went out of bounds.
Day-Wilson fed Williams, who scored on a driving layup to give LSU its first lead, 74-73, since 8:25 left in the fourth, and now it was N.C. State’s turn to get cooked.
Sa’Myah Smith had another block on Brooks during the Wolfpack’s next possession, with Morrow grabbing the ball. Brooks fouled Smith, who made both shots to extend LSU’s lead. The Tigers threw the ball away on an inbounds play, but the Wolfpack couldn’t do anything with it, getting whistled for an offensive foul.
With just 15 seconds left, N.C. State was forced to foul and Williams and Smith each made a pair to seal the win.
‘We made plays down the stretch. We made some bad plays down the stretch, but we made plays down the stretch to pull it out and win,’ LSU coach Kim Mulkey said. ‘It means we did some good stuff.’
Led by Gilbert.
Gilbert spent her first two seasons at Arizona. When she came to LSU for a visit, Mulkey and assistant Bob Starkey sat her down and Mulkey was unflinchingly honest. She had no doubt Gilbert could contribute offensively.
If she didn’t improve her defense, though, she’d never see the floor at LSU.
Rather than resisting, Gilbert took it as a challenge.
‘I said, ‘You know what? I understand that culture. I’m willing to lock in defensively,’” she said.
Mulkey said she’s watched as Gilbert’s defense has gotten better throughout the season. For Gilbert to save a game with her defense, rather than her offense, it doesn’t get much better for a coach.
‘Like she said, she was getting beat off the dribble there. For her to make a defensive play, it’s only fitting that we talk about that in this game,” Mulkey said.
What makes March Madness so special is you never know who’s going to step up. Or how.
LSU didn’t need Gilbert’s offense against N.C. State. It needed her defense, and she delivered.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.