Junior guard Charles Manning Jr. made the most of his minutes on Tuesday night. He provided 11 points, two rebounds, one assist and one block off the bench in a loss to No. 10 Kentucky.
It was a back-and-forth battle in the first half. Neither team shot above 32% from the floor as the Tigers trailed 29-28 at the break.
Kentucky started the second half on an 8-0 run and eventually got out to a 15-point lead. LSU trailed 67-52 following back-to-back threes from Kentucky with 5:14 remaining.
LSU went on a 20-10 run before a layup from Manning cut the lead to four with 18 seconds left. The Tigers’ last-minute efforts were not enough as Kentucky held on to win 79-76.
“I thought our bench played well,” coach Will Wade said. “We’ve been asking for our bench to play better. I thought Manning played better and I thought Marlon did some good things for us as well.”
Manning was perfect from deep, knocking down all three of his attempts. He had been one of the Southeastern Conference’s best bench players prior to a foot fracture that sidelined him for the past month.
Manning finished with a team-high plus/minus of +10. He played 17 minutes in his second game back from injury.
“I felt good,” Manning said. “I felt like I could’ve contributed a little bit more on the defensive side. Kentucky is a good team and they played great.”
LSU (18-8, 9-4 SEC) remains in third place in the conference following their fourth loss in five games. The Tigers return to action Saturday for a road matchup against South Carolina.
“We’ve just got to lock in and just do what we were doing in the beginning,” Manning said. “We can score. Just focus in on the defensive end more than anything.”
