BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU’s Jalen Reed swatted away Noah Thomasson’s potential winning layup in the closing seconds and the Tigers held on for a 67-66 victory over Georgia Tuesday night.
A 12-3 run with 5:38 remaining in the game produced the Bulldogs’ first lead since the opening minutes. Justin Hill and Thomasson hits 3-pointers to open and close the surge.
Jordan Wright made 10 of 11 from the free-throw line and finished with 17 points for LSU and grabbed the ball after Reed’s block just before the buzzer.
LSU (15-13, 7-8 SEC) won back-to-back games over ranked opponents before a 20-point home loss to Mississippi State last time out.
After Georgia took the late lead, Wright scored LSU’s next six points before his steal lead to a fast-break layup by Tyrell Ward that gave the Tigers a 65-64 lead with two minutes left. Neither team scored until Hill made a jumper with 29 seconds to go and Will Baker hit two free throws 14 seconds later to cap the scoring.
Baker scored 12 points for the Tigers and Reed added eight with three blocks.
Baker scored the first seven points — including a dunk and-1 after a block by Derek Fountain on the other end ignited the fast break — in a 17-3 run that made it 23-10 about 7 minutes into the game. The Tigers took their biggest lead when Mwani Wilkinson hit a 3 that made it 40-25 with 30 seconds left before halftime. LSU went 0 for 5 from the field with two turnovers as the Bulldogs scored 10 of the first 12 second-half points to make it a six-point game with 16 minutes to play.
Thomasson led the Bulldogs with 16 points and Hill added 11.
Georgia (15-13, 5-10) beat the Tigers 68-66 at home on Jan. 24 after Russell Tchewa converted a three-point play to cap the scoring with 2.3 seconds left. The Bulldogs have lost eight of nine since.
Georgia plays host to Texas A&M on Saturday.
About the Author
