{"id":1160124,"date":"2026-02-17T12:36:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T17:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/?p=1160124"},"modified":"2026-02-17T12:36:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T17:36:25","slug":"lsus-bella-hines-impact-against-south-carolina-earns-mulkeys-praise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/lsus-bella-hines-impact-against-south-carolina-earns-mulkeys-praise\/","title":{"rendered":"LSU's Bella Hines' impact against South Carolina earns Mulkey's praise"},"content":{"rendered":"

The talented freshmen class for LSU women’s basketball got its first taste of the rivalry with South Carolina on Saturday. Despite falling to the Gamecocks 79-72 inside the PMAC,<\/a> the Tigers got a sense of what their newcomers can add.<\/p>\n

Bella Hines subbed in for her first minutes of the game in the third quarter and immediately scored four points, giving the team “a spark” as head coach Kim Mulkey put it. She also picked up Tessa Johnson on defense and helped hold her to three points in the frame.<\/p>\n

“I saw a kid that I need to play more,” Mulkey said of Hines. “She needs to take away some of the minutes of some of them because she got out there and guarded Tessa. She wasn’t afraid to bow up to her. She made shots. She had a lot of energy and effort, and she has my respect.”<\/p>\n

Hines competing for more minutes means she’s in the mix with Grace Knox and ZaKiyah Johnson, who are back and forth with each other at the four spot in the starting lineup. Johnson got the nod Saturday and played well early but only got four minutes in the second half. <\/p>\n

“Should I have given [Johnson] some minutes there?” Mulkey said. “You can’t second-guess yourself now, but I do always go back and think about what could I have done to help us win this ballgame.”<\/p>\n

Johnson and Knox had tough perimeter defensive assignments on South Carolina’s lengthy guards. Both ran the floor well in transition and crashed the boards. The trio of true freshmen combined for 17 points and eight rebounds. <\/p>\n

“They’re very talented,” Mulkey said. “They’re very competitive. They’re not afraid to fail. They’re very confident, and this day and age, you know, if those kids stay together, they’re going to be really special.”<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on LSU Wire: LSU women’s basketball: Bella Hines earns praise from Kim Mulkey<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/lsus-bella-hines-impact-against-123625142.html<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The talented freshmen class for LSU women’s basketball got its first taste of the rivalry with South Carolina on Saturday. Despite falling to the Gamecocks…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1160124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1160124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160124\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1160124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1160124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1160124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}