LSU star Flau’jae Johnson injured her eye during Friday’s Sweet 16 win over No. 2 seed NC State.
The injury happened during a collision with Zoe Brooks at 5:04 in the fourth quarter. She was down for a couple of minutes and grimaced when she got back up.
A few minutes later, Johnson was back on the bench, being attended to by medical staff. ESPN reporter Holly Rowe said she had a bad scrape and asked ‘don’t you just have some tape? I can just tape my eye open.’
LSU coach Kim Mulkey was ready to put Johnson back in the game after the collision, but was told not to by the medics after Johnson was seeing double.
‘It was really hard for us not to have Flau’jae on that floor, but she was seeing double. She got hit in the eye area and they wouldn’t let her go back in,’ Mulkey said.
Mulkey added that Johnson used her time on the sideline to coach her teammates, which she described as a ‘sign of a leader.’
The Tigers had a close game, but shut out the Wolfpack for the remaining two minutes to win 80-73. In the final 4:09, Mikaylah Williams and Sa’Myah Smith scored all 16 of LSU’s points.
Johnson didn’t have her best shooting performance, posting three points on 1 for 8 shooting. She added five rebounds and four assists in 30 minutes.
Mulkey said she hadn’t heard anything concerning about Johnson’s status for Sunday’s Elite Eight matchup and she anticipates that Johnson will be ‘good to go.’
