Geaux Courtside with @JohnBrady_Coach & @LSUTigersVoice for the winning basket from Wardy @tyrellward_ at the horn to beat #17 Kentucky inside a raucous PMAC Wednesday night. pic.twitter.com/6H8Np6OPWm
— LSU Sports Radio Network 🐅📻 (@LSUradio) February 22, 2024
BATON ROUGE, La. – A buzzer-beater from Tyrell Ward lifted LSU past No. 17 Kentucky 75-74 Wednesday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. With the win, LSU claimed its second consecutive win over a top-20 team and picked up its third victory over a nationally-ranked opponent this season.
For the fifth time over a seven-game span and the third consecutive game, the LSU Tigers rallied back from a double-digit second-half deficit.
With just over a minute left in the game, Jalen Reed hit 1-of-2 free throws to make the score 73-69, in favor of the Tigers. Kentucky’s Rob Dillingham scored Kentucky’s next five points, including a go-ahead jumper, giving the Wildcats a 74-73 lead with 13 seconds remaining.
LSU inbounded the ball, and Jordan Wright‘s shot was blocked. Wright pulled down his second offensive rebound of the game and saved the ball from going out of bounds. Ward located the basketball and quickly tipped it in as time expired to seal the upset.
WARDY CALLED GAME pic.twitter.com/bmFpNKNhXd
— LSU Basketball (@LSUBasketball) February 22, 2024
Ward set a career-high for the second consecutive game with a team-high 17 points, shooting 5-for-10 from the floor, knocking down three 3-pointers. Reed and Wright followed with 13 points each.
Kentucky’s Antonio Reeves finished with a game-high 25 points, and Dillingham totaled 23 points, including scoring the Wildcats’ final 12 points.
LSU shot 44.6 percent from the floor (25-of-56) and 45.0 percent from 3-point range (9-for-20), while Kentucky shot 43.5 percent from the field (27-of-62) and 40.0 percent from deep (8-of-20). The Tigers outscored the Wildcats 48-38 in the second half and held the visiting team below 40.0 percent shooting in the final 20 minutes while nearly shooting 50.0 percent in the half.
LSU improves to 14-12 overall and 6-7 in SEC play, while Kentucky falls to 18-8 and 8-5 in league play. The Tigers will have a quick turnaround as they face Mississippi State at 7:30 p.m. CT on Saturday, Feb. 24 on SEC Network.
An easy choice for No. 1️⃣@tyrellward_ | #BootUp pic.twitter.com/Kl7q015Ny5
— LSU Basketball (@LSUBasketball) February 22, 2024
Both teams came out firing, shooting over 60 percent from the floor and 50 percent from 3-point range by the game’s first media timeout. The score was tied 16-16 with 13:13 on the clock, and LSU was 3-for-5 from behind the arc.
Out of the timeout, Wright connected on his first triple of the night to give LSU a 19-16 lead, but the Wildcats held the Tigers without a field goal for over five minutes as the teams were knotted at 22 at the under-eight-minute media timeout.
Both teams cooled down offensively as they exchanged scoring droughts and lead changes late in the half. UK closed the half on a 10-0 run and took a 36-27 lead into intermission as they held LSU scoreless for the final 2:23 of the half.
The run continued in the second half as Kentucky knocked down a pair of triples on its first two possessions for a 16-0 run. LSU responded, however, with a 16-2 run, highlighted by 11 unanswered points to trim the 15-point deficit to two points at 44-42, forcing a UK timeout. The Fighting Tigers tied the game at 46 and took a 48-46 lead on a layup by Hunter Dean to cap another 6-0 run. LSU led 50-49 at the 11:41 mark in the second half.
The Tigers took their largest lead of the game at 54-49 and held a 61-58 advantage with 7:25 left. Kentucky pulled within one point twice down the stretch, but a corner 3-pointer from Mike Williams III pushed the lead to 66-62 with 4:59 left in the game.
After taking a 66-64 lead into the final media timeout, LSU’s Williams hit a free throw to go ahead by three points, but UK’s Dillingham nailed a 3-pointer to tie the game at 67 with 2:32 on the clock.
Reed scored on a layup, but Dillingham tied the game again at 69 with a pair of free throws. On the Tigers’ ensuing offensive possession, Will Baker, who finished with eight points, connected on his lone 3-point field goal of the game from a kick out pass from Trae Hannibal, giving LSU a 72-69 lead with just over 90 tics left.
LSU vs. Kentucky
February 21, 2024
LSU Quotes
Head Coach Matt McMahon
Opening Statement...
“Really don’t have the words to describe it. Just so proud of our players. Over the last week seeing the toughness that we need to play with. I think it has to be the foundation of your program. For some reason when we go down by 15 points again in the second half and then really came together as a team and found ways to get it done. The last minute was obviously not a work of art, but that’s on me and the guys found a way to win anyways. So, I’m really proud of them. The atmosphere in the PMAC was fantastic. Loved the energy. It’s a great win for our team and for our program. Kentucky is terrific. The challenging part of this league is two great wins at South Carolina and Kentucky here tonight and it will be a quick turnaround here with Mississippi State rolls into town on Saturday. So, we’ll enjoy it here for an hour or so and then we got to start getting ready for a really good Mississippi State team.”
On what the design was for the last play…
“Well, we had used the timeout on the previous possession and I thought Kentucky was just really good there in their set defense. We had a timeout left in a one-point game. Little ‘helter skelter’. I like this disorganization out there of the defense. I thought it gave us a better chance. Obviously, it didn’t work out that way but none the less. I thought just relentless effort. I’ll have to go watch it, but Jordan Wright got blocked. He goes and saves it and throws it to the front of the rim and Tyrell Ward comes flying out of nowhere to put the ball in at the buzzer. As I said on TV there, that won’t be on any coaching clinic but our players toughness and grit flying around made the play to win the game.”
Conclusion…
“I will conclude by just thanking the fans. That was an awesome atmosphere. The energy in the building, you could feel it. When our guys needed a lift down 15, they gave it to us and when we needed to make plays, I thought the fans were just awesome. It’s something to build on. We’ve got an elite Mississippi State team coming in here Saturday night at 7:30 PM CT and I hope we can pack the place and sell it out and keep building on this last week’s run with these two great wins.”
LSU Forward Jalen Reed
On what clicked for him in the second half and what they did well as an offense…
“I think we did a lot of things well. We moved the ball better in the second half. For me I think, I didn’t really play much in the first half, so I was just ready to play. I had the opportunity. Derek Fountain had to sit out. He was dealing with some things with his thigh so I just stepped up and I really wanted to deliver for my team.”
On the past two games and what it means for the program moving forward…
“These past two games have been an amazing experience. I think we have grown a lot as a team and we are starting to reap the benefits of our hard work. We are just enjoying it. This is a good representation of the team we can be.”
LSU Forward Tyrell Ward
On what the message was when Kentucky went on their big run…
“Honestly just stay composed. We knew we were going to have a chance to get the momentum back and we were at home. Basketball is just a game of runs so we just had to stay composed and follow coaches game plan and I thought that’s what we did.”
On the past two games and what it means for the program moving forward…
“The best teams go through the most adversity. I feel like during the four to five game stretch where we couldn’t pull it out, I feel like that was just all the buildup to get to these two games. This is just the progress of it.”
Kentucky Head Coach John Calipari Quotes
Opening Statement…
“Fifty-fifty balls cost us the game. It’s all we talk about. Fifty-fifty balls. Not only the last play, the play before that. Up 13, we have it, they jerk it form us, kick it out, make a three, make another three. Now it’s anybody’s ballgame. Matter of fact, we may have been up 15. You can’t win. Don’t tell me about your offense. If you’re not going to come up with 50/50 balls, you can’t win but I’m going to say this: all that being said, I was proud of these guys, in this environment, doing what they did. Making that last shot, someone blocks it, I got to watch the tape and see who did not grab that ball. The winning ball. Who didn’t grab it? And why? Why not dive on the floor just to get the ball and tie up the game? Fought to get back, made baskets, (Rob) Dillingham made some unbelievable plays. He did what he does.”
On what went wrong after the 15-point lead…
“I don’t know but I’ve watched all their games. They were down 24 on Tennessee and they came back and made it a five-point game. They were down 16 against South Carolina and made it a game. So why don’t you say what are you guys doing when you’re down 15? What happens to your team? Because they just change. I think Florida had them down 16 or 17, so I told my team that at halftime, ‘they’re going to make a run’. Every game I’ve watched they’ve made a run. Now you have got to make a run back, but, we had been getting 50/50 balls. We reverted a little bit today. But you have got to give them credit. It was a great game for them and a great win. They toughed us for those balls which made the difference in the game.”