Kentucky men’s basketball (11-6, 2-2 SEC) stunned the LSU Tigers (12-5, 0-3 SEC) 75-74 with a last-second buzzer beater on Wednesday night, rallying back from an 18-point deficit at the start of the second half.
The Cats entered Baton Rouge on the back of a 24-point win over Mississippi State, hoping to stack momentum.
Kentucky entered Baton Rouge on the back of a 24-point win over Mississippi State, hoping to stack momentum; however, the Cats floundered from the jump.
Kentucky head coach Mark Pope switched around the starting lineup once more, giving Andrija Jelavic his first start while also giving Kam Williams another start, still seeking to find that key rotation.
With that, the Tigers jumped out to an early 6-0 advantage courtesy of two made 3-pointers, which Jelavic responded to by going 1-2 at the free-throw line, getting the Cats on the board nearly four minutes in.
At the 12:15 mark, LSU was able to construct a 10-0 run over the span of 2:33, testing Kentucky’s grit right from the jump, putting the Cats in a familiar position, trailing heavily from the get-go.
By the 10-minute mark, UK was shooting 1-11 from the field and 0-5 from deep.
With three minutes remaining in the first half, UK trailed 29-16 while Jelavic had a team-high six points. Aside from Jelavic’s contribution, Otega Oweh had four points while Collin Chandler and Malachi Moreno each had three points.
The Cats went into the break trailing 38-22 while only accumulating two total assists.
As done in previous games, the Cats started the second half stronger, going on a 6-0 run following one made free-throw from Oweh, one made bucket from Denzel Aberdeen and one made triple from Jelavic.
The Cats forced an LSU timeout nearly two minutes into the second half after they closed the deficit down to 11 points.
At the media timeout, with 11:27 to go in the game, UK was outscoring the Tigers 21-14 in the second half while the offense began rolling, seeing more contributions from everyone on the court.
Oweh nailed a corner 3-pointer with just over five minutes remaining in the game, forcing an LSU timeout while shrinking the deficit to just one as the score read 65-64, still in favor of LSU.
Kentucky was able to take its first lead of the game following a made fast break dunk from Williams with under four minutes to go, however, LSU regained the lead after Robert Miller III flushed home a layup.
Pope then called a timeout with 2:39 remaining.
From there, it was a back-and-forth affair as the clock bled down.
The Cats trailed 74-72 with 12.8 seconds remaining when Pope called a timeout, and following that, Oweh got to the line before going 1-2, leaving just 1.9 seconds remaining.
LSU’s Pablo Tamba went 0-2 from the free-throw line, giving the Cats a shot, where Moreno then nailed a mid-range buzzer beater to put UK ahead 75-74 as time expired.
The Cats shot 65.4% from the field in the second half and 72.7% from deep, pulling off a remarkable comeback to improve its SEC record to 2-2.
Kentucky will be back on the road this Saturday, Jan. 16, heading down to Knoxville to face its border rival in No. 24 Tennessee (12-5, 2-2 SEC). Tipoff is set for 12 p.m. EST and will air live on ESPN.