BATON ROUGE, La, (AP) — Jordan Wright made 10 of 11 from the free-throw line and finished with 17 points, Jalen Reed blocked a shot just before the buzzer and LSU withstood a squandered 15-point lead to beat Georgia 67-66 Tuesday night.
Justin Hill and Noah Thomasson hits 3-pointers to open and close a 12-3 run that gave Georgia its first lead since the opening minutes and made it 58-57 with 5:38 remaining. Wright scored LSU’s next six points before his steal lead to a fast-break layup by Tyrell Ward that gave the Tigers a 65-64 lead with 2 minutes left. Neither team scored until Hill made a jumper with 29 seconds to go and Will Baker hit two free throws 14 seconds later to cap the scoring.
Reed swatted Thomasson’s potential winning layup in the closing seconds and Wright grabbed the rebound to seal it.
LSU (15-13, 7-8 SEC) won back-to-back games over ranked opponents — beating then-No. 11 South Carolina on the road and then-No. 17 Kentucky at home — before a 20-point home loss to Mississippi State last time out.
Baker scored 12 points for the Tigers and Reed added eight with three blocks.
Baker scored the first seven points — including a dunk and-1 after a block by Derek Fountain on the other end ignited the fast break — in a 17-3 run that made it 23-10 about 7 minutes into the game. The Tigers took their biggest lead when Mwani Wilkinson hit a 3 that made it 40-25 with 30 seconds left before halftime. LSU went 0 for 5 from the field with two turnovers as the Bulldogs scored 10 of the first 12 second-half points to make it a six-point game with 16 minutes to play.
Thomasson led the Bulldogs with 16 points and Hill added 11.
Georgia (15-13, 5-10) beat the Tigers 68-66 at home after Russell Tchewa converted a three-point play to cap the scoring with 2.3 seconds left on Jan. 24. The Bulldogs have lost eight of nine since.
Georgia plays host to Texas A&M on Saturday. LSU hits the road to play Saturday at Vanderbilt.
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AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball
