Kentucky Dominates LSU 95-64 on Senior Night

By Hayden Kennedy 

No. 19 Kentucky hosted the LSU Tigers on Tuesday night in Rupp Arena for Senior Night. And the Wildcats won by an astounding 31 points.

Seniors honored during the pregame ceremony included Amari Williams, Jaxson Robinson, Koby Brea, Andrew Carr, Lamont Butler, and Ansley Almonor. 

UK would dominate the game from the start, going on a 15-0 run early in the first half with multiple Wildcats scoring. 

Kentucky's Otega Oweh goes up for a basket against LSU during Tuesday night's action at Rupp Arena. (Photo by Jamie H. Vaught)

Although it was Senior Night, it was the junior Otega Oweh who stole the show once again. Oweh finished with 24 points on 9 of 11 shooting with eight rebounds, three assists, and three steals. 

Kentucky coach Mark Pope commented on Oweh’s performance. 

“I thought he was elite starting the game on the defensive end. That's what we really cared about," Pope said. "We need him to start gains being great defensively. But Otega made a bunch of plays today, he made some really simple plays that look brilliant, right? I thought he was terrific, his focus was great.”

Brandon Garrison contributed well, scoring 15 points, including two rebounds and four assists. Ansley Almonor also had 15 points on an impressive 6 of 7 shooting, including 3 of 4 from three-point range. 

“I thought he was terrific. Ansley, my goodness, what a season he's had,” Pope said. “For a guy never in his wildest dreams thought he would be wearing a Kentucky jersey. You think about the huge impactful moments that he's had in games for us and he's going to be big down the stretch. You see it all the time. He had three or four really quite subpar games for his standard that he set.

"And sometimes all of the weight of this thing starts to get on your shoulders and he did great tonight just casting out like, I'm going to be a baller man, make minutes, and I'm gonna go play. I thought his energy and intensity was great tonight. I thought he was really special. He's been great all season.”

Kentucky improved to 20-10 overall (9-8 in SEC), while LSU dropped to 14-16 overall (3-14 in SEC) 

Kentucky will travel to Columbia on Saturday to play the No. 15 Missouri Tigers in the last regular-season game of the year. The 12 noon ET contest will be shown on ESPN with Tom Hart and Dane Bradshaw on the call.  

Hayden Kennedy, a recent UK graduate, is a contributing writer from Lexington.

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