Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s 74-71 win over LSU
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Game day: Kentucky 74, LSU 71
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Tuesday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and LSU in Rupp Arena.
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Five things you need to know from the Kentucky Wildcats’ 74-71 win over the LSU Tigers in SEC men’s basketball at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center:
1. Toppin’s encore. Coming off his 24 points, seven rebounds tour de force in Kentucky’s 86-63 blowout of archrival Louisville Saturday, Kentucky forward Jacob Toppin backed that performance up in a big way.
The 6-foot-9, 205-pound senior scored a team-high 21 points — 17 in the second half — on 9-of-13 shooting.
As UK limped to close out a game it led throughout the second half, Toppin came up big.
With the Wildcats clinging to a 67-66 lead and the shot clock expiring, Toppin buried a three-pointer from the deep left corner to put UK ahead four with 1:24 left in the game.
After LSU again pulled within one at 72-71 with 9.3 seconds left on three free throws from Cam Hayes, Toppin came through again.
The Brooklyn, N.Y., product stepped to the foul line for the one-and-bonus and calmly cashed both free throws.
After a rugged December, the Toppin of the past two games is “the breakout player” UK insiders were forecasting back in the summer.
Over the past two games, Toppin and Oscar Tshiebwe (19 points, 16 rebounds vs. LSU) have given the Wildcats a formidable one-two punch in the front-court.
2. UK’s shaky late-game execution. If it had not been for Toppin’s late-game clutch play, Kentucky may well have let the win slip away.
Kentucky led 67-61 after Sahvir Wheeler banked in a three-pointer with 3:58 left in the game.
From there, things went a bit south on the Cats.
UK had the ball with a chance to go up at least eight points, but the possession went bad as the Wildcats tried to milk the shot clock. Kentucky wound up with Tshiebwe having to take a rushed jumper from near the foul line with 3:15 left after the UK star rescued a loose ball that prevented a Wildcats’ turnover.
After a Hayes three-pointer brought LSU within 67-64 with 2:55 left, Kentucky had another bad offensive possession that ended with the 5-9 Wheeler having to take a tough shot in the lane as the shot clock ran down that missed.
Even Toppin’s clutch trey from the corner was not the shot one wanted from a player who was shooting 13.6 percent on treys entering the game.
To compound the shaky finish, Wheeler missed the front end of the bonus with 19.6 seconds left and UK up 72-68. Then Kentucky freshman Chris Livingston was called for fouling LSU’s Hayes on a three-point try with 9.3 seconds left. That allowed Hayes to go to the foul line and sink three free throws to pull LSU within one point.
3. “Murray State” vs. Kentucky in Rupp Arena. Though they share the same state, the Kentucky Wildcats and Murray State Racers have never met in men’s college hoops.
In a sense, however, LSU was standing in for Murray State on Tuesday night.
The Tigers’ first-year head coach, Matt McMahon, was hired away from Murray State following last season after he went 154-67 over seven years.
McMahon ultimately brought three former Racers players to Baton Rouge with him.
Super-senior big man KJ Williams, last season’s OVC Player of the Year, went for 23 points in Rupp Arena. The 6-10, 250-pound product of Cleveland, Miss., hit eight of 13 shots, four of six treys and three of three foul shots. He also had three rebounds and two assists.
Junior point guard Justice Hill had a quiet night, missing all three of his field-goal attempts and going scoreless in 13 minutes.
Senior guard Trae Hannibal, the hero of LSU’s 60-57 upset of No. 9 Arkansas last week with 19 points in 22 minutes, played well against UK, too. Hannibal hit five of six shots, two of four free throws, and had 12 points in 29 minutes.
4. Cats vs. power-conference foes. With the victory, Kentucky is now 29-27 against teams from one of college basketball’s major conferences — the football Power Five plus the Big East — dating back to the final week of the 2019-20 regular season.
5. UK extends major win streak. Kentucky has now won 28 straight home games. The Wildcats have not lost at home since falling to Florida, 71-67, on Feb. 27, 2021.
UK is now 9-0 in Rupp this season.
LSU was bidding to become only the fourth team with multiple victories over UK in Rupp Arena during the John Calipari coaching era (since 2009-10). The Tigers bested UK 73-71 in Lexington on Feb. 12, 2019.
Florida (three wins), Tennessee (three wins) and Arkansas (two wins) are the only teams who have beaten Kentucky more than once in Rupp Arena during the Calipari era.
This story was originally published January 3, 2023 at 10:31 PM.
