Kentucky defeats LSU at home
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Keion Brooks Jr. had 13 of his season-high 15 points in the first half, Brandon Boston Jr. added 13 of his 18 points in the second half, and Kentucky trailed for just 15 seconds in its 82-69 win over LSU 8269 on Saturday night to snap a three-game skid.
Kentucky (5-9, 4-3 Southeastern Conference), which had a six-game losing streak earlier this season, got a much-needed win in the first of a five-game stretch against Top-40 teams. The Wildcats avoided their third four-game slide under coach John Calipari.
Olivier Sarr made a layup and Brooks made two free throws to give Kentucky the lead for good before Davion Mintz and Boston hit backto-back 3-pointers to make it 12-4. The Wildcats set season highs for a half with 13 assists, six 3-pointers, and 49 points while taking a 13-point lead into the break.
Trendon Watford tied his career best with 26 points and added a season-high tying 10 rebounds, and freshman Cameron Thomas scored 18 for LSU (10-4, 5-3). Thomas, who went into the game averaging 22.0 points (No. 8 nationally), made 1 of 8 from 3-point range as the Tigers made just 4 of 23.
Watford made a layup to trim LSU’S deficit to 56-51 with 15:29 left to play but the Tigers got no closer. Boston answered with a 3 and then converted a three-point play before his tip-in of a miss by Brooks gave the Wildcats a 13-point lead with 10 minutes remaining.
Sarr finished
with
13 points and Mintz 11. Freshman Isaiah Jackson grabbed a season-high 15 rebounds for Kentucky.
LSU received 20 votes in the latest AP poll but followed it up with a 105-75 home loss to No. 18 Alabama before getting outworked by the Wildcats on Saturday. Kentucky picked apart the Tigers’ full-court press — finishing with as many alley-oops (four) as turnovers and hitting six 3s — in the first half.
Kentucky, which committed at least 16 turnovers in each of its last three games, had just nine against the Tigers.
Ole Miss 61, Texas A&M 50
OXFORD — Jarkel Joiner scored 21 points with seven rebounds and Devontae Shuler
scored 17 and Mississippi beat Texas A&M.
Kevin Marfo’s layup with 1:55 left before the halftime gave Texas A&M a 28-23 lead. From there, Ole Miss (8-6, 3-4 Southeastern Conference) proceeded to go on a 20-2 run from which the Aggies (7-6, 2-5) never regrouped. Texas A&M didn’t score again until Emanuel Miller’s jump shot with almost five minutes gone after intermission.
Following a Miller layup with 12:20 remaining, Joiner made a layup and a jumper, Shuler a jumper and Romello White a pair of free throws and the 8-0 run in a fourminute span gave the Rebels a double-digit lead the rest of the way.
Miller scored 18 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for the Aggies.
Ole Miss finished 19-for-43 (44%) shooting while Texas A&M went 20 for 51 (39%); including just five 3-pointers made for each team. The difference occurred at the foul line where Ole Miss went 18 for 29 and the Aggies were just 5 for 8.
Ole Miss now has won back-to-back contests following a three-game losing streak. The Rebels travel to Fayetteville, Arkansas to face the Razorbacks Wednesday.
The Aggies will host LSU on Tuesday.
Arkansas 92, Vanderbilt 71
NASHVILLE — Moses Moody scored 26 points with eight rebounds Jalen Tate scored 25 and Arkansas led all the way in a win over Vanderbilt.
D.J. Harvey scored 16 points and Scotty Pippen Jr. scored 15 for Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt was without the services of sophomore Dylan Disu due to contact tracing for COVID-19.
Moody scored four points as Arkansas built a 9-0 lead in the first three minutes. The Razorbacks extended the lead to 18-8 before the Commodores scored seven straight to close within three. Ejike Obinna sank a pair of foul shots and threw down a dunk to narrow the deficit to 18-15 with 11:29 before halftime.
Vance Jackson’s 3-pointer capped a 9-3 Arkansas run that put the Razorbacks up 40-30. Tate’s 3 with a minute before the break made it 4331, and Arkansas finished the half up 45-35. Justin Smith’s layup with 14:54 remaining made it a 57-46 advantage and the Razorbacks led by double figures the rest of the way.
Arkansas had a 39-29 rebounding edge, in part a function of Disu’s absence — the SEC’S second-leading rebounder at 8.4 per game.
Disu and Pippen had been the only two Commodores to start every game this season while starting the last 24 games together. Disu had started 41 straight games. The only game he hadn’t started was the first game of his freshman year.
Vanderbilt returned to the court for the first time following the SEC canceling its Wednesday night game against Texas A&M due to not having enough players available.
The Razorbacks (12-4, 4-4 Southeastern Conference) have beaten Vanderbilt (4-7, 0-5) seven straight times and are 11-1 against the Commodores in their last 12 meetings.
Auburn 109, South Carolina 86
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Allen Flanigan scored a careerhigh 24 points with four 3-pointers, Sharife Cooper had a double-double by halftime and Auburn resoundingly thwacked South Carolina for its first win on the Gamecocks home floor since 2014.
Auburn put up its most points in a Southeastern Conference road win in program history.
Cooper, a freshman who was granted eligibility by the NCAA Jan. 9, scored 16 points and had 12 assists for his second career double-double. He already had 10 points and 11 assists in the books in the first 20 minutes.
Jaylin Williams scored 18 points with seven rebounds, JT Thor added 14 points and seven rebounds and Devan Cambridge scored 10 as the Tigers (9-7, 3-5) made 40 of 77 field goals (52%), including 14 of 27 from beyond the 3-point arc. The Tigers made 15 of 16 free throws to round out the dominating scoring effort.
Florida 92, Georgia 84
ATHENS, Ga. — Tre Mann scored a career-high 24 points, leading five into double-digit scoring and Florida broke away from Georgia.
Noah Locke added 16 points, making four 3-pointers, Colin Castleton scored 14, Tyree Appleby 14 and Omar Payne 10 for the Gators (8-4, 5-3 Southeastern Conference) who have now won two in a row after upending No. 6 Tennessee earlier in the week.
Florida has won five of six in Georgia under coach Mike White and Saturday scored the most points in regulation at Georgia since 1994. The hot-shooting Gators finished at 57% from the floor (37 of 65) with seven 3-pointers and making 11 of 17 at the line.
Andrew Garcia scored 17 points on 8-for-9 shooting and K.D. Johnson added 16 to pace Georgia (9-5, 2-5), which saw a modest twogame win streak end. Justin Kier scored 14 points, Toumani Camara 11 and Sahvir Wheeler 10 for the Bulldogs.
Mann scored 17 points after halftime as Florida broke open a 42-39 lead. The Gators opened the second on a 13-3 burst while Georgia missed six of its first seven shots and had four turnovers. Florida extended its lead to 58-42 after an Appleby 3-pointer. Appleby scored 12 of his 14 after halftime.