NASHVILLE – Otega Oweh recorded 23 points and eight rebounds and Kentucky committed just five turnovers during its 87-82 win over LSU in Wednesday’s first-round game of the Southeastern Conference tournament.
Brandon Garrison added 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting and Denzel Aberdeen had 16 for the Wildcats (20-10).
Max Mackinnon led LSU (15-17) with 28 points while Michael Nwoko added 16 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
Kentucky will face Missouri, which defeated the visiting Wildcats 73-68 on Jan. 7, in Thursday’s second round.
The Wildcats shot 50.0% from the floor and 73.9% from the foul line against LSU.
Neither team led by more than four in the second half’s first 10 minutes.
But Kentucky began to separate when Garrison – 2 of 14 on 3-pointers coming into Wednesday – hit back-to-back 3s, then got a steal on the Tigers’ next trip.
That led to Aberdeen’s basket that made its lead 73-64 with 9:29 left.
Garrison’s offensive foul with 2:10 left gave the Tigers, down 81-76, some life. But Mackinnon threw a pass out of bounds on the Tigers’ next trip.
On Kentucky’s ensuing possession, Oweh rebounded his own miss and subsequently buried a mid-range jumper with 1:12 left for a seven-point edge.
The Wildcats led 46-43 after a first half that featured four fouls on the Tigers and six on Kentucky.
The ones charged to the ‘Cats, however, hurt them in the paint.
Starter Malachi Moreno picked up his second foul just 5:11 into the game and sat for the rest of the half, while Mouhamed Dioubate was charged with a Flagrant 1 with 8:07 left for his second foul. Neither scored in the half and both sat the remainder of the period.
That made life easier underneath for Nwoko, who had 13 points and six rebounds in the first half.
Kentucky’s Kam Williams checked in with 14:10 left in the first half after missing the previous 12 games due to a foot injury.
