WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, West Virginia – The LSU Tigers, down 38-18, 18 minutes into the contest, rallied to force overtime and outscored UCF, 16-9, in the third overtime period to win, 109-102, in the third-place game of The Greenbrier Tip-off at Colonial Hall at The Greenbrier on Sunday.
The Tigers went 1-1 on the weekend and are now 5-1 on the year, coming home to play Northwestern State on Friday night at the Maravich Center.
It was LSU’s first triple-overtime game since 2013.
LSU struggled to find shooting touch both inside and outside in the first 18 minutes, missing 10 layups and only shooting 25 percent from the field. The Tigers bolted out to a 7-0 lead, but were outscored over the next 16 minutes, 38-11, to find themselves in the 20-point hole.
LSU cut the deficit to 15, 40-25, at intermission.
UCF (4-2) got the lead back to 18, 52-34, with 12:57 to play. Slowly, the Tigers, behind the play of Jalen Reed and Jordan Sears, started to work back into the game.
LSU trailed by 14 with 8:31 to play before Sears hit three consecutive three-pointers that would cut the UCF lead to 64-59 with six minutes to play. UCF busted it back out to eight points, 68-60, with 4:49 to go before Reed got back-to-back layups to make it 68-64 with 2:54 to play.
UCF scored its final points of regulation on a layup with 2:27 left that made it 70-64. LSU forward Corey Chest got a dunk to cut the margin to 70-66 and, after an empty UCF possession, Cam Carter’s jumper made it 70-68 with 1:09 to play. UCF missed a three-pointer and got the offensive rebound, but turned it over. Carter was fouled with 22 seconds to play and made both free throws to tie the game at 70-70, and the Knights missed a shot at the end of regulation to send the game to overtime.
In the first overtime, LSU led by as much as four points twice before UCF’s Keyshawn Hall made two free throws with six seconds left to tie the game at 82-82 and force a second five-minute period.
The teams traded three-pointers twice in the second overtime before Sears got a driving layup and drew a foul that resulted in a three-point play to give LSU a 91-88 lead with 1:50 left. The Knights would tie it with less than a minute left before LSU’s Dji Bailey’s layup gave LSU a 93-91 advantage with 35 seconds left. Hall got the tying bucket again with a layup with 21 seconds to play, and the teams were headed to triple overtime.
It would be the second triple-overtime game of the young 2024-25 season in NCAA Division I basketball, and the first for LSU since the Tigers defeated Alabama, 97-94, in three overtimes in 2013 in Baton Rouge.
After Carter scored on a second-chance field goal 68 seconds into the third OT period, LSU never again trailed. The Tigers twice led by five and continued to hold UCF at bay to pull off the 20-point comeback victory.
Sears, who had six three-pointers, finished with 25 points, nine rebounds, and three assists. Jalen Reed had a double-double of 21 points, 13 rebounds, and four assists, with Carter getting 20 points. Vyctorius Miller had 20 points off the bench, and Bailey had 14 points and six assists.
Darius Johnson led UCF with 25 points, Hall had 21, Jordan Ivy-Curry, who got hot in overtime, had 20 points. Rokas Jocius added 10.
LSU outrebounded UCF, 50-42, and had 50 points in the paint. The Tigers, after shooting 25 percent in the first half, shot 50 percent in the second half and 57.7 percent in overtime. For the game, LSU was 38-of-88 for 43.2 percent, and LSU made 12-of-36 three-pointers.
UCF shot 40.7 percent (37-of-91) with 10 three-pointers. The Knights shot 34 percent in the 15 overtime minutes.
Up Next
LSU will return to action on Friday, November 29, as they return to the PMAC to take on Northwestern State. The game will tip off at 7 p.m. CT and will be broadcast live on SEC Network+.
LSU COACH MATT MCMAHON
“You know we’re down 20. It was move on and play the next possession,” said LSU Coach Matt McMahon. “We couldn’t make a layup, and their rim protection had something to do with that. Certainly, we just really struggled to score. I never in a million years at halftime, would have thought I’d be sitting here talking to you having scored 109 points. But you know, credit to our players. We just found a way down 20 to just keep playing the next possession, and eventually started really executing well on the offensive end of the floor, and we were able to get enough rebounds to get out of here with the win.
TALK ABOUT JALEN REED’S EFFORTS …
“Well this was a big step forward for him. The number that stands out to me is that he played 48 minutes. He looked a little slow to me in the first half, but that second half on through the three overtimes, I just thought he was terrific. We were able to play through him in the post. I thought he did a good job recognizing the defenses. UCF, the play that 2-2-1, they drop back into a two-three. After a certain number of passers, they’ll go man and you’ve got to be really dialed in and I thought Jalen was fantastic there. Four assists to go along with his 13 rebounds and 21 points.”
ON SHOTS FALLING UPPING THE TEAM CONFIDENCE
“I think that’s an important part of it. But the other thing we talked about, Central Florida has really good protection at the rim and so when you drive in there, you’re trying to finish over 7-2 guys. And I thought we made some poor decisions there. I thought in the second half and the overtimes, we got in there, if it was one-on-one, we went to finish. If they collapsed on us, we kicked it out and that led to some open, better looks from behind the three-point line for us.”
LSU FORWARD JALEN REED
On the halftime message…
“We were just told to stay with it. We took a lot of really tough shots in the first half that we just couldn’t get to fall so we just had to lock in on defense, rebound the ball better, and when we did that, we got better results.”
On what the tournament has taught you as a player and as a team…
“Our team can respond to anything. Today was a really strong day for our team. A lot of teams would have given up in a game like that, but we just continued to fight. We continued to communicate, in the game, in the huddle, on the bench. I feel like our team is really connected.”