BATON ROUGE – No. 9 LSU women's basketball gave No. 1 South Carolina everything.

One of the biggest crowds in Pete Maravich Assembly Center. A fiery start that saw the Tigers go up on the top-ranked team by as many as 11 in the first half. LSU exchanged heavyweight swings with the Gamecocks as the white-cladded crowd hung onto every play.

But Dawn Staley and her Gamecocks erased an 11-point deficit to escape LSU, 76-70, Thursday night.

The Tigers (18-3, 5-2) drop their second Southeastern Conference game while the Gamecocks (18-0, 6-0) take a commanding lead in the regular season league standings.

LSU women's basketball let rebound advantage slip away vs. South Carolina

Kim Mulkey's teams usually live on the glass. This year's LSU team has mostly performed to her liking in that department. But Angel Reese, Aneesah Morrow, freshmen Aalyah Del Rosario and Mikaylah Williams found another gear against No. 1 South Carolina.

Despite Kamilla Cardoso providing her team the size advantage at 6-7, LSU outrebounded the Gamecocks 33 to 25, including 12 to nine in offensive boards in the third quarter.

The Tigers limited South Carolina most of the night to one possession and was able to dictate the tempo of the game off misses from the Gamecocks.

But in crunch time, the Gamecocks secured the ball when it had to and finished with a 39 to 37 rebound advantage in the game.

Angel Reese fouls out, changing complexion of game late

By halftime, South Carolina's top players, sharpshooter Te-Hina Paopao and Cardoso were held to just 3 points each.

LSU's defense from Reese and Flau'jae Johnson on both had befuddled the Gamecocks' top-two scoring options as Paopao went 4-for-12 from the floor, finishing with 12 points and Cardoso managed 11 points on 5-for-11 shooting along with eight rebounds.

ANGEL REESE FOULS OUT Angel Reese fouls out of LSU women's basketball vs. South Carolina with four minutes left

KIM MULKEY OUTFIT Kim Mulkey's Coca-Cola jacket, outfit draw attention in LSU vs. South Carolina game

LSU got what it needed but it couldn't close things out as Reese fouled out with less than four minutes remaining, changing the complexion of the final minutes. South Carolina outscored the Tigers 15 to 9 the last five minutes.

Aneesah Morrow has standout night

Morrow led LSU in scoring with 16 points and was the only player to record a double-double in the highly-anticipated matchup.

But only 6 of her points those came in the second half as the she was given many looks after halftime.

Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers and Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers and Cajuns coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU/UL athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: LSU women's basketball's upset bid of South Caorlina falls short