LSU forward Angel Reese registered a double-double of 15 points and 13 rebounds during the Tigers’ 79-72 SEC Tournament championship game loss to the top-ranked and undefeated South Carolina Gamecocks on Sunday.
Off the court, her longtime boyfriend, Florida State Seminoles guard Cam’Ron Fletcher, posted a picture on Instagram of a $56,995 Corvette C7 that he had rented with the caption:
“Just rented da vet for 2 days, come slide wit me.”
Angel Reese explains her decision not to brawl
During the first half of the SEC championship game, Angel Reese pulled Kamilla Cardoso’s hair and got away with it. When the brawl between LSU and South Carolina started in the fourth quarter, Reese walked away from it.
LSU guard Flau’Jae Johnson bumped into South Carolina’s Ashlyn Watkins and was then pushed to the floor by Gamecocks’ center Kamilla Cardoso, resulting in a brawl erupting after both benches emptied.
After the game, Angel Reese addressed why she was seen walking away from the brawl on her X account:
“As a person at my STATUS, sometimes you have to walk away from certain situations. Mind you the play before that I had rolled my ankle AGAIN and was already walking to the bench,” she tweeted.
“I ALWAYS ride for mine. I’m super proud of this team & super excited for march.”
Coach Kim Mulkey said what she thought about Reese and the Cardoso incident during her postgame news conference.
“It’s ugly. It’s not good,” Mulkey said. “No one wants to be a part of that. No one wants to see that ugliness, but I can tell you this: I wish (Kamilla Cardoso) would’ve pushed Angel Reese.
Don’t push a kid; you’re 6-8. Don’t push somebody that little. That was uncalled for, in my opinion. Let those two girls that were jawing go at it.”
Reese’s mentor and former NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal gave his views on how the LSU forward dealt with the situation.
“I called her and said, ‘You did the right thing. Trust me, if you would have went out there, they would have been looking for you.
You and (Kamilla) Cardoso get into a shoving match,” O’Neal, who was frequently the target of physical play when he starred at LSU, said. “She’s already ejected. Can’t play in the next round.
“That would have happened to you. It would have been all your fault.’ So, she did the right thing. Kudos to her. I see she’s taking a lot of flak. ‘Oh, she should have been there.’ This is not fighting.
The only thing you have to fight for is to fight for your team. The game was played closely. Things like that — you don’t want them to happen. When they do happen, you just move on.”
South Carolina’s Kamilla Cardoso was suspended for one game while Angel Reese will be free to play for the eighth-ranked Tigers, who are the defending national champions, as they start their March Madness games next week.
