By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
BATON ROUGE – LSU sophomore forward Tyrell Ward knows by now what to do when teammate Jordan Wright gets the ball in his hands with the game on the line.
“I knew the whole defense was going to collapse on Jordan, so I figured if I crashed (the boards for a possible rebound), I might get overlooked,” Ward said.
Kentucky’s Adou Thiero blocked a Wright drive with two seconds left, Wright caught the loose ball just before falling out of bounds and threw a pass to Ward who flipped in a 3-foot buzzer-beating game-winning shot for a 75-74 SEC victory over the 17th-ranked Wildcats Wednesday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
“I really don’t have the words to describe it,” said LSU second-year head coach Matt McMahon, whose team won a second straight game over a ranked team after a 64-63 road victory last Saturday at then-No. 11 South Carolina. “I’m just so proud of players, seeing the toughness we need to play with to be the foundation of our program.”
The Tigers (14-12 overall, 6-7 SEC) trailed by 15 points in the first minute of the second half after Kentucky’s 12-1 run to close the first half gave the Wildcats a 36-27 lead at the break.
But once LSU cut down its turnovers – it had 12 in the first half and two in the second – and flipped an 18-16 first-half rebound deficit to a 22-12 domination in the final 20 minutes – LSU erased Kentucky’s sizeable lead in about six minutes.
The Tigers outscored UK 19-6 to erase a 42-27 Wildcats’ lead and edged ahead 48-46 with 13:15 left to play on a Hunter Dean layup.
From there, it was a fight to the finish. Thanks to reserve sophomore forward Jalen Reed scoring 12 of his game-total 13 points in the second half, Ward’s team-high 17 points including 3 of 4 3-pointers and Wright finishing with 13 points, LSU led by 5 points twice and 4 points twice, the final time with 1:04 left at 73-69.
Kentucky guard Rob Dillingham, who scored 23 points off the bench, went on his personal 5-0 run with a 3-point play with 53 seconds left and a deep corner jumper for a 74-73 UK lead with 13 seconds left after Wright’s turnover with 28 seconds left.
That didn’t deter Wright from bulling his way to the goal on LSU’s final possession, getting his shot thrown back in his face before he reclaimed it and lofted it to Ward who set off a rare court storming by LSU students in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center crowd of 9,493.
“The 50/50 balls cost us the game,” said UK coach John Calipari, whose team had a two-game winning streak snapped falling to 18-8 overall and 8-5 in the SEC. “I’m proud of our guys doing what they did in this environment, but I got to watch the tape and see who didn’t grab the winning ball and why.”
It was McMahon’s biggest signature victory of his young LSU coaching career, taking over a program with virtually no returning players when previous head coach Will Wade was fired in March 2022 for recruiting violations.
Last season after McMahon threw together a roster in less than two months, LSU finished 14-19 overall and 2-16 in the SEC.
That’s why Wednesday’s wild postgame celebration – there have been less than five court storms in LSU history, and this was the first since the floor was named Dale Brown Court two years ago – was so sweet for returning players Reed and Ward.
“We’ve been here two years and we’ve got to see being the lowest,” Reed said. “That moment (the court storm) was really amazing.”
Both teams started the game on scoring tears, and it wasn’t necessarily bad defense.
At the first media timeout with 13:13 left in the first half and the score tied at 16-16, LSU had scored on 7 of 10 possessions and Kentucky had scored on 7 of 12 possessions.
The game settled into a defensive struggle. At the next three media timeouts, no team held more than a 2-point lead.
Kentucky had a 5½-minute stretch in which it made just 1 of 12 field goal attempts. But LSU couldn’t get separation because its offense turned horrific.
After Wright’s 3-pointer with 12:58 left gave the Tigers a 19-16 lead, LSU made just 2 of 12 shots the rest of the way and committed 9 turnovers.
UK reserve guard Reed Sheppard led the Wildcats 12-1 scoring burst in the last 2:43 of the first half when Kentucky made its last 5 shots for a 36-27 halftime lead.
Sheppard scored on a stop-and-pop jumper, navigated through traffic for a tough driving layup and assisted on two buckets including one on a steal he wrestled away from an LSU defender and diving on the floor.
Calipari said he warned his team at halftime LSU wasn’t going away.
“Every LSU game I watched, they got down 24, 16, 15 points and they came back,” Calipari said. “I told my team LSU is going to make a run and we’ve got to make a run back.
“Give LSU credit. They (out) toughed us for those (50/50) balls and that was the difference in the game.
LSU plays the second of a three-game homestand on Saturday night vs. Mississippi State before hosting Georgia next Tuesday.
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com