BATON ROUGE, La. — No. 16 Kentucky drops their first SEC road game 65-60 at No. 21 LSU.
Just about everything that could have gone wrong for Kentucky in the first half managed to go wrong. With 16 minutes on the clock, Kentucky point guard Sahvir Wheeler went down hard on an LSU screen. Wheeler looked dazed as two trainers helped him off the court and into the locker room, where he would remain for the rest of the game.
Kentucky's front court took a hit when Oscar Tshiebwe went to the bench with two fouls midway through the fist half.
Jacob Toppin stepped up big with 13 points in the first 20 minutes. He finished the night with 14.
Despite shooting 1-for-10 from 3-point range, Kentucky entered the break trailing only by five, 35-30.
Kellan Grady struggled going 0-for-6 from three before the break, 0-7 from the floor.
Kentucky opened the second half on a tear with back to back to back threes for Davion Mintz, Grady, and Mintz again, while holding LSU scoreless in the opening three minutes.
But Kentucky's back court would take another hit when TyTy Washington went back to the locker room with cramps with under 10 minutes to play in the game, the Wildcats barely hanging on to the lead.
A 15-2 LSU run put Kentucky behind 56-52 with under four minutes to play.
The Wildcats fell apart offensively, putting up just 3 points over 11 minutes down the stretch. Free throws also were a major weak spot with Kentucky missing 10 of their 20 attempts.
Mintz with a big 5 points kept Kentucky in the game, down just a point 60-61 with under 30 seconds to play.
The final 30 seconds turned to chaos, Kentucky with a chance to take the lead turns the ball over, leading to four straight LSU points. Tigers finish on top 65-60.
Both teams finished with 15 turnovers and 39 rebounds a piece.
