The LSU women’s basketball team overcame a disastrous second quarter against Murray State on Friday to pull out a 74-60 win to avoid an incredible upset at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

The No. 7 Tigers (4-0) led by 11 after the first quarter.

Then Murray State erupted offensively.

The Racers (1-2) outscored LSU 32-12 in the second quarter after they converted 11 of 18 field goal attempts, 4 of 6 3-pointers and 6 of 7 free throws. Defensively, they shut down the Tigers, who committed seven fouls and three turnovers in the quarter while shooting just 4 of 17 from the field and just 1 of 7 from beyond the arc.

Murray State took a 46-37 halftime lead, seemingly in an instant.

“How about we give them credit?” LSU coach Kim Mulkey said. “Stop saying what we didn’t do. I think that’s a problem with a lot of coaches, when they win and when they lose it’s what they didn’t do. What about what the opponent did?”

LSU wrestled back control of the game in the third quarter, when its offense began to thaw, and regained the lead in the fourth, when its defense put together some key stops.

But what went wrong in the second quarter?

LSU scored zero points from the paint, from the bench or from either of the two turnovers Murray State committed in the second quarter.

Mikaylah Williams, the sophomore star who scored the Tigers’ first nine points of the night, missed all three of her shots from beyond the arc and made just 2 of 7 field goal attempts. The only other Tigers to score in the period were Flau’jae Johnson and Aneesah Morrow. In the second, they accounted for 11 of LSU’s 12 points.

“I just think they took us off the dribble,” Mulkey said of Murray State. “They took all the post players off the dribble, just got loose balls. Just played hard. I didn’t think they just played out of their minds. They just played hard. They’re a very good team and well coached.”

Murray State caught fire from 3-point range and got trips to the free throw line, taking away opportunities for LSU to use its transition offense. The Tigers had no answer for 6-foot-1 wing Ava Learn, a senior who had 16 points in the second quarter.

LSU engaged its full-court press midway through the second quarter in hopes of slowing down Murray State. But Learn countered with a quick nine points — three from a layup she made off a foul by Aalyah Del Rosario, and six from a pair of 3-pointers she nailed on straight possessions. She helped the Racers add five points to their lead before the break.

“We just tried to use up the clock,” Mulkey said of LSU’s press, “and we tried to tire them out so those shots that they made early in the first half would miss them. And they did.”

In the first half, Murray State shot 6 of 14 from beyond the arc. But in the second half, the Racers missed all 14 of their attempts from 3-point range. It also failed on 23 of 27 field goal attempts and eight turnovers.

LSU was also more composed on the offensive end in the second half.

Shayeann Day-Wilson assisted on a pair of transition layups, one early in the quarter to Morrow and another later in the quarter to Sa’Myah Smith. Kailyn Gilbert stepped into an open 3 on the left wing. Morrow chipped in five points in the third after she hit both of her field goals and sank a pair of free throws.

Then LSU pulled ahead, thanks to a layup that Morrow rolled in on a second chance and a mid-range jumper Johnson took off a screen.

Johnson was LSU’s leading scorer, finishing with 25 points, seven rebounds, five assists, two blocks and two steals while shooting 9-of-13 from the field. She scored 10 points in the fourth quarter.

Day-Wilson scored nine points, dished out eight assists and forced three turnovers. In the 32 minutes she was on the floor, LSU outscored Murray State by 26 points.

Morrow shot 4 of 11 from the field but still scored 10 points and grabbed 14 rebounds. Day-Wilson, Johnson, Williams and Morrow each recorded at least two steals.

Senior point guard Last-Tear Poa returned to the floor Friday after she missed each of LSU’s first three games. In seven minutes, she assisted on two buckets and missed her lone field goal attempt.

LSU will next host Troy at 7:00 PM on Monday.