Instead of spending the Mardi Gras holiday at home or in a parade, the LSU men’s basketball team traveled to Rupp Arena to play the Kentucky Wildcats. Things got out of hand fast for Matt McMahon’s team as the Tigers’ record dropped to 14-16 and 3-14 in SEC Conference play with the 95-64 loss on Tuesday.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
Robert Miller III gave LSU the early lead with a dunk on their second possession after Miller secured the rebound on an Amari Williams missed layup. Kentucky took over following the basket by the Tigers a minute into the game.
The Wildcats took a sizable lead over the next four minutes with a 15-0 run. Five Kentucky players scored on the run, with Otega Oweh making a couple of shots. Kobe Brea and Andrew Carr also scored from three-point range to make it a 12-point difference just over five minutes into the game.
LSU responded with a solid 8-3 to cut into Kentucky’s lead. Mike Williams III scored twice in the paint, including a dunk that began with him driving downhill from the top of the key. Dji Bailey scored off a crossover, and Daimion Collins blocked Travis Perry’s three-point attempt. The athletic play was capped off with a transition layup that Jordan Sears assisted. The Tigers cut it to an eight-point game and forced Kentucky to take a timeout with 11:47 to go. It was all Wildcats after that.
Kentucky extended their lead by going on a 12-0 run. Ansley Almonor hit a three after Lamont Butler picked Bailey’s pocket, and Oweh scored nine points on five of the next six Wildcat possessions to push their lead up to 30-10 with seven and a half minutes left in the first half.
Williams and Miller scored on back-to-back possessions to end LSU’s scoring drought, but Kentucky couldn’t stop scoring as Mark Pope’s team went up by 25 with a 12-3 run. The run featured a couple more vicious slams and shots from downtown from the Wildcats, including a deep wing three by freshman guard Collin Chandler.
The Tigers scored a couple more times in the paint before Kentucky finished the half on an 8-2 run. LSU went into the break down 50-23.
Things didn’t get any easier for the Tigers coming out of the locker room. LSU blinked and allowed a 10-4 run over the first three minutes of the second half. Cam Carter fouled Oweh on a three-point attempt, and the Kentucky guard made all three shots from the charity stripe. Carr followed that with an and-one before Carter ended the run with a three that Collins assisted on.
Kentucky continued to build on their lead by the midway point of the second half as the Wildcats nearly made it a 40-point game. Williams found Oweh for another one-handed dunk, then Lamont Butler’s three-pointer pushed it up to a 38-point advantage before Miller hit a three.
Carter and Sears picked up the scoring late in the ball game as Carter knocked down three shots from downtown over three minutes before finishing the game with 14 points. Sears, on the other hand, scored nine of his 13 points in the final five and a half minutes.
The late scoring spree was nowhere close to enough to making it competitive late as the Wildcats scored 21 points in the final 10 minutes of the game. After a free throw by Derek Fountain with .2 seconds to go, Kentucky inbounded the basketball to end the game and officially crush LSU 95-64. The loss in Rupp Arena dropped the Tigers’ record to 14-16 and 3-14 in SEC play.
BIG NUMBER: 38
The game was never that close and got out of hand a couple of minutes into the game. Throughout the game, Kentucky built on their lead as were up by as much as 38 with 10 and a half minutes left in the second half. The Wildcats also shot over 50% from the floor as a team while LSU shot nearly 45% and turned the ball over 16 times on Tuesday.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Otega Oweh
Oweh finished with a game-high 24 points on efficient 9-11 shooting and was a perfect 6-6 from the free throw line. The junior guard out of Newark, New Jersey also recorded eight rebounds, three assists, and three steals as Kentucky dominated LSU 95-64, dropping the record of the Tigers to 14-16 and 3-14 in conference play.
UP NEXT: The LSU Tigers men’s basketball team will conclude their regular season finale at home when they take on the Texas A&M Aggies. Tipoff from the Pete Maravich Assembly Center is set for 3:00 pm on Saturday, March 8th, and the action can be heard on ESPN 103.7 Lafayette 104.1 Lake Charles.
