The LSU Basketball team entered Sunday Afternoon looking to pick up a solid win over a UCF team that has started the year off 4-1 in the Third Place game at the Greenbrier Tip Off. The LSU Basketball team started this game off poorly playing sloppy Basketball. The Tigers turned the ball over, missed shots, and played poor defense allowing UCF to lead by as many as 20 points taking a 15-point lead into the half.
In the second half, LSU started to turn the momentum behind great defense which helped the Tigers offense in closing the gap. Down the stretch of this game, LSU played incredible defense with Corey Chest stealing the ball with less than a minute left allowing Cam Carter to drive drawing a foul where he tied the game allowing LSU to send the game to overtime.
Once LSU got this game into overtime physical defense and smart decision-making allowed LSU to grab its first lead since the first half but, great shot making by UCF sent this game to a second overtime.
In the second overtime, it was the Jordan Sears show as he did everything for LSU making three pointers and converting and-one layups. Both teams lost big men to too many fouls which opened the shot making up in the 2nd overtime and as Jordan Sears missed an attempt to win the game we went to a third overtime.
In triple overtime, Vyctorius Miller took over for LSU putting this game out of reach with two unreal finishes. The true freshman has been a difference maker early on this season giving LSU a high level scorer off the bench.
True Freshman Vyctorius Miller continues to give this team a massive spark off the bench scoring 16 points, a rebound, and a steal. While most of the starters struggled, Jalen Reed carried the load on both ends scoring 21 points while grabbing 13 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks , and recording a steal. Corey Chest is becoming the energy spark for this team with a massive steal to force overtime finishing the game with 8 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 steals.
It wasn't the best start of the game for Cam Carter and Jordan Sears but, in the second half and overtime the veteran guards took over. Sears was held scoreless in the first half, he responded by scoring 25 the rest of the was making 6 three pointers while grabbing 9 rebounds. Cam Carter struggled shooting but, he gave the Tigers 20 points and made two clutch free throws to get this game into overtime.
A gutty win by the LSU Basketball team
This game and the second half showed you what this LSU Basketball team is all about under Matt McMahon. The Tigers never relented even when they were down 20 points and continued to play their game. Once LSU got into overtime it played flawless defense which led to great scoring chances in the fast break while they also picked UCF with great passing from Reed. This team was picked to finish at or near the bottom of the SEC in the Preseason Poll, this team has all the pieces in place to change that narrative.