BATON ROUGE — The crowd inside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center was already on its feet before LSU great Shaquille O'Neal emerged from the tunnel with his favorite player Angel Reese as well as her mom, Angel.

O'Neal escorting his "favorite player," according to the Reese T-shirt he was wearing, during LSU women's basketball Senior Day ceremony at halftime of Sunday's game with Kentucky was met with a loud reverberation from Tigers fans. And as Reese, her family and O'Neal snapped a picture with Kim Mulkey, the crowd let its collective feelings be known.

"One more year" chants rained down, growing louder after each recital.

No. 9 LSU beat Kentucky, 77-56, capping Senior Day and the 2023-24 regular season with an eight-game win streak.

The Tigers (26-4, 13-3) head into the SEC Tournament, where they will be the No. 2 seed in Greenville, South Carolina, and will play their first game at 5 p.m. Friday inside Bon Secours Arena.

LSU women's basketball stars Angel Reese, Hailey Van Lith take center stage on Senior Day

Rees and fellow senior Hailey Van Lith each have one more year of eligibility and could choose to return to LSU next season if they wanted.

From what Mulkey has told media members the past few weeks, she's operating like both Van Lith and Reese will not return. Reese is projected to be a top-8 pick in this April's WNBA Draft. Van Lith is currently not projected to be selected in the WNBA Draft. She transferred to LSU from Louisville to learn the point guard position under Mulkey, something she needed to show WNBA executives.

While the LSU crowd cascaded "one more year" chants, Reese and Van Lith went to work for the Tigers against the Wildcats. Reese finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds while Van Lith put up 10 points.

LSU freshman star Mikaylah Williams misses game with injury

For the first time since Van Lith sat out the penultimate nonconference game back in December, Kim Mulkey had to go with a different starting lineup Sunday.

Freshman Mikaylah Willams sat out the game against the Wildcats due to a lingering foot issue and Mulkey didn't play out of precaution. Williams was present during team warmups before the game Sunday but was wearing a walking boot.

A team spokesperson told The Daily Advertiser during pregame that the injury isn't expected to impact Williams' ability to play in the SEC Tournament next week. LSU will be the No. 2 seed and have a double-bye in Greenville, South Carolina, and won't play against until Friday night.

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Kim Mulkey, LSU Tigers carry 8-game win streak into SEC Tournament

Of the eight consecutive games that the Tigers have won, this one may have been the ugliest.

After opening double-digit leads, twice Kentucky threatened, most notably closing the first half on a 13-2 run that shrunk LSU's down from 17 points to 33-27.

The Tigers had a height and athleticism advantage over Kentucky but couldn't really get anything going on offense until late in the game. LSU shot 46%, went 1-for-12 from 3-point land and had 15 turnovers, the majority of those coming from Reese trying to make the extra pass.

Kentucky prevented LSU from getting out and running and that helped it stay within striking distance for most of the game.

Despite that, the Tigers carry plenty of momentum into postseason play, starting with the SEC Tournament. LSU is the No. 2 seed behind No. 1 South Carolina and have secured a double-bye next week in Greenville, South Carolina.

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 beats Kentucky to extend win streak to 8 games