NEW ORLEANS — Big Blue left the LSU men’s basketball team feeling blue Friday afternoon.
The Tigers (18-14) gave a valiant effort but couldn’t overcome a relentless No. 1 Kentucky (31-1) squad, falling 60-51 in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference Tournament in the New Orleans Arena.
The Wildcats’ win against LSU propelled them toward the finals of the tournament, where Vanderbilt snapped their 24-game win streak. Kentucky beat No. 3-seeded Florida in the SEC semifinals and still earned a No. 1 seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
In front of a raucous pro-Wildcats crowd, LSU saved one of its best performances for what was potentially its last game.
The Tigers jumped out to a 12-7 lead, trailed by just one at halftime and charged out of the locker room to a 35-30 advantage with 16 minutes remaining.
But foul trouble, the partisan crowd and Kentucky’s first-round talent sent LSU back to reality.
The Wildcats exploded to a 9-0 run on a trio of acrobatic lay-ins and held LSU without a basket for more than five minutes to snatch the momentum for good.
“That’s not a good team we lost to, that’s a great one,” said LSU coach Trent Johnson. “With that much talent, you know a run is coming. I thought we withstood it pretty well, but [we] couldn’t match them shooting the ball.”
Kentucky freshman forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist exploited numerous mismatches to finish with 19 points, while sophomore Terrance Jones bludgeoned through the Tigers’ interior for 15 points.
Freshman sensation Anthony Davis altered LSU’s shots all afternoon, forcing a 29.4-percent Tiger shooting effort, accumulating six blocks and tallying 12 points.
For LSU, freshman point guard Anthony Hickey led the quest early for the upset bid.
The Kentucky native recorded four first-half steals to help limit the Wildcats to just 25 points through 20 minutes.
“Defense was how we had to do it,” said Hickey, who finished with 10 points, five steals and four assists. “The first time we played them didn’t matter. We couldn’t be scared — just had to get after them.”
Kentucky routed LSU, 74-50, in the PMAC on Jan. 28, but the Tigers forced 18 Wildcat turnovers and held UK to just one 3-pointer this time around. Kentucky never led by more than nine points, marking only the fourth time all season the Wildcats failed to open up a double-digit advantage.
With a small surge to take a one-point lead into halftime, the Wildcats seemed on the verge of a game-clinching run at a moment’s notice.
But it was LSU that burst out of the locker room, using four Andre Stringer points and a Ralston Turner 3-ball to take a stunning 35-30 lead.
That was about as much offense as the Tigers would muster the rest of the way.
LSU managed just 16 points during the final 16 minutes and scored on only 24 of its 70 possessions in the game.
Senior forward Storm Warren — playing in possibly his final collegiate game — kept LSU within reasonable striking distance in the second half, scoring 10 late points to finish with 14 points.
Stringer added 11 points, but he shot just 4-of-15 from the field.
The Tigers missed sophomore guard Ralston Turner and Johnny O’Bryant III down the stretch, as both fouled out before the final official timeout.
LSU’s performance, coupled with its resume, was enough to earn an NIT bid. The Tigers will travel to Eugene, Ore., to play Oregon on Tuesday.
“With our performance all year long, I think this team proved worthy of [an NIT] bid,” Johnson said after the game. “They competed so hard out there [Friday]. If we’re fortunate enough to get a bid in the postseason, it’s going to take a good effort by a fine team to beat us, the way we’ve played the last two days.”
LSU defeated Arkansas, 70-54, on Thursday in the tournament’s opening round.
 
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Contact Chris Abshire at [email protected]