Asia Boone, the former Liberty guard, was an unsung hero against LSU

Kentucky women’s basketball’s win over LSU was awesome for a number of reasons, and it couldn’t have happened without some heroic performances. Teonni Key goes for 17 points and 16 rebounds in her first game back from injury, Clara Strack hit her signature post fadeaway to give Kentucky a late lead, and of course, Tonie Morgan hit the game-winning three in the end after an incredible outing. However, Asia Boone shouldn’t get lost in that shuffle.

Boone was the 2024 CUSA Freshman of the Year at Liberty, where she spent the first two seasons of her collegiate career. When she committed to Kentucky this offseason, there was an expectation that she would come off the bench and at best, be Morgan’s backup.

Maybe that expectation has some truth to it in essence, but when you say that, you wouldn’t expect Boone to bust out the Superman cape and put Kentucky in a position to win at No. 5 LSU like she did. In 35 minutes of action, Boone recorded 18 points, four rebounds and three assists on five made threes.

It was a close game late, but early on in the game, LSU was up 14-2 and then 17-5 before the Cats went on a 13-0 run to make it competitive again. Without Boone, that run doesn’t happen, and more than likely, Kenny Brooks and his squad are run out of the gym.

Brooks made sure to acknowledge Boone during his postgame press conference. “I thought Asia Boone was huge, hit a couple of threes that got us back within striking distance,” he said.

And it’s not like Kentucky made a 13-0 run against Poop State to avoid a nightmarish upset. It was against undefeated LSU, who entered Thursday night averaging 108 points per game. All the odds were (literally) stacked against Kentucky, but the Cats prevailed anyway. Kim Mulkey has a great team to work with, and Brooks knows that very well.

“I thought scouting — it was probably one of the harder scouts that we’ve had for a first conference game just because they didn’t have any close games,” Brooks mentioned. “The one thing I came away with is that’s as talented a team as I’ve seen that we’ve had to go against. It’s really hard to try to take anything away from them.”

Brooks even joked that LSU football head coach Lane Kiffin should “go see if Mikaylah [Williams] will come over and be a quarterback.”

Of course, with as talented as LSU is, that massive run the Tigers went on to start the game was all the more overwhelming for Brooks.

“Man, it was like a tsunami,” Brooks said. “To be honest, when they first started, they were fast — fast and strong, and they moved it and they got it. That’s one of the better passing team’s I’ve scouted.” He even admitted that Kentucky got “shell-shocked” by the Tigers’ fast start.

But as we’ve already noted, Asia Boone was the catalyst for the run that got Kentucky back into the game — back into position to get the upset win.

“Then, we kind of settled down, then I think we went on a 13-0 run to get ourselves back in the game, and that was really good for us,” Brooks added. “Once we got to that point, then it was basketball.”

When we look back at this game, the late-game heroics from Morgan will probably come to mind first — and deservedly so — but there’s no doubt that Kentucky doesn’t win that game without Asia Boone.