Ugly Basketball: LSU Holds On to Beat Georgia 89-85

The Tigers found their touch from long-range down the stretch, and held off a last-minute Georgia comeback attempt to secure an 89-85 victory, sending a packed house at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center home happy.

Despite leading by double digits multiple times in the closing minutes of Tuesday night’s game, The Tigers had to scrape a win in the final seconds. LSU had an 11-point lead with 50 seconds to go, but Georgia pulled within one at the 27 second mark.

Blakeney connected on 1-of-2 free throw attempts to extend the Tigers’ lead to 87-85, allowing Georgia one final possession to tie the game or take the lead.

LSU Tigers freshman and likely No. 1-overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft Ben Simmons has been lighting the world on fire in his first college basketball season, even if his team hasn’t had the same amount of success that many expected with Simmons’ arrival.

The Tigers grabbed an 18-9 lead early on, but the Bulldogs clamped down on the defensive end and brought the score to 18-15 with just under eight minutes to play in the first half.

A key for Georgia has been the emergence of sophomore forward Yante Maten, who leads the team with his averages of 16.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks. LSU shot 38 percent from the field (11 of 29), while Georgia was just slightly better at 40 percent (10 of 25). Quarterman also contributed six rebounds and five assists, while Simmons hauled in 14 board, bring his double-double total to 15 on the season. Victor converted a 3-point play and Quarterman added two free throws and a field goal during this stretch. The Bulldogs (8-11, 1-6) whittled a 14-point second-half deficit to 55-53 on I.J. Ready’s 3-pointer with 9:13 to play. Quarterman started the run with a 3-pointer.

J.J. Frazier, front, former Whitefield Academy standout Kenny Gaines (12) and their Georgia teammates have two hard road trips on the horizon.

Georgia’s J.J. Frazier had a game-high 26 points on 10-of-18 shooting. Gaines was a focal point of UGA’s offense in the first half scoring 13 points on 4-6 shooting. Blakeney, who made four clutch free throws late, had 12 points and Patterson and Craig Victor finished with 11 each.

The Bulldogs are one the road again on Saturday traveling to Waco, Texas to face the Baylor Bears in the Big 12/SEC Challenge.

A couple of things that will help the Georgia Bulldogs against LSU on Tuesday night is that they already have an impressive SEC win on the year with Saturday night’s victory over the Hogs.