Tonie Morgan’s buzzer-beater gives Kentucky women’s basketball an upset win at LSU
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- Kentucky upset No.5 LSU 80-78 on Tonie Morgan’s last-second three in Baton Rouge.
- Wildcats dominated boards 45-29, producing a 17-4 offensive rebound edge.
- Morgan finished 24 points, 12 assists, no turnovers and hit the game-winner.
Tonie Morgan launched from right in front of her coach, so Kentucky’s Kenny Brooks got a great look at one of the most memorable shots in Wildcat women’s basketball history.
Morgan’s 3-pointer as time expired gave No. 11 Kentucky an 80-78 win over No. 5 and previously undefeated LSU on Thursday night in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Morgan dribbled the ball for more than 14 seconds, first at the top of the key and then on the left wing before she hoisted from that left wing, her back to Brooks, just before the horn sounded.
“As soon as she let it go, I was right on line with the basketball,” Brooks said, “and I was like, ‘That’s going in.’”
Maybe Brooks saw it coming then, but a Wildcat win was all but inconceivable early.
LSU (14-1, 0-1 SEC) raced out to a 14-2 lead and looked every bit the undefeated, 12.5-point favorite it was entering the game. Asked at his postgame news conference how Kentucky weathered that initial storm, Brooks said “Man, that thing was a tsunami.”
But after the Wildcats (14-1, 1-0 SEC) fell behind 15-7, they answered with 13 straight points — a run keyed by two of Asia Boone’s five 3-pointers in the game — to take their first lead.
“Once we got to that point, then it was basketball,” Brooks said.
“I want to give Kentucky credit,” LSU coach Kim Mulkey said. “I thought Kentucky was poised. They have a ton of seniors, and as you’ve heard many times in sports, experience matters. Fifth-year seniors matter. If you would have told me that we would have been outrebounded with this group I have, there’s no way I would have believed you.”
But the Cats dominated on the backboards, using their size to pile up a 45-29 rebounding advantage that included a 17-4 edge in offensive rebounds and an 18-4 margin in second-chance points.
Nine of forward Teonni Key’s 16 rebounds came at the offensive end. She added 17 points. Clara Strack had 15 points and nine rebounds, Jordan Obi six points and 10 boards.
“We needed to be bullish on the boards and make sure we got second- and third-chance opportunities,” Brooks said. “But we also needed to limit their second- and third-chance opportunities.”
Boone had 18 points, making 5 of 13 3-pointers. Those early two, Brooks said, were “huge” in getting Kentucky back in the game.
But it was Morgan who lifted the Wildcats for much of the night — and who carried them home in the closing seconds.
She finished with 24 points on 7-for-10 shooting, making all three of her 3-point tries. She had 12 assists and a steal with no turnovers. And she had the moment of Kentucky’s season so far with the game-winner against a Tiger team that Brooks called “as talented a team as I’ve seen that we had to go up against.”
Morgan and Brooks are “getting to be joined at the hip and understanding each other,” Brooks said, and in the timeout before her game-winner, she asked him when she should make her move. Brooks told her not to leave the Cats time for an offensive rebound. He wanted a shot as close to the clock expiring as possible.
“Coach called the play,” Morgan said. “I came off the screen, didn’t like what I saw. I saw the time running down. I was like, ‘I gotta make a play.’”
This story was originally published January 2, 2026 at 12:15 AM.