LSU was unable to break out of its slump on perhaps the biggest stage in college basketball as the Tigers fell to No. 15 Kentucky 92-85 in Rupp Arena.

The losing streak for LSU (9-14, 1-10 Southeastern Conference) now stretches to 10 games.

The Tigers started the game in an early hole allowing Kentucky (19-5, 9-2 SEC) to take an early 18-4 lead in the opening seven minutes and LSU trailed Kentucky 43-27 at the break.

“I thought they played a really good first half of basketball,” LSU coach Johnny Jones said at postgame press conference streamed on ukathletics.com. “I thought our guys did a good job of remaining focused and continuing to battle.”

LSU came out of the second half with a on a 10-0 run cutting the Kentucky lead to 12 with 16 minutes left in the game. The Tigers also outscored the Wildcats 58-49 in the second half.

However, Kentucky would prove to be too much, pulling away and at one point leading LSU by 25 points in the second half.

Turnovers plagued LSU the whole game as the Tigers coughed it up 14 times allowing 14 points off those turnovers.

The biggest difference of the night however was rebounding. Kentucky grabbed 14 offensive rebounds leading to 12 second chance points. The Wildcats outrebounded LSU 40-26.

Sophomore guard Antonio Blakeney finished one point shy of tying his career-high scoring 31 points on 12-of-19 shooting from the field.

“I thought Blakeney did an excellent job of staying aggressive,” Jones said. “I thought he did a great job of trying to get into them and catch them on the perimeter.”

Sophomore guard Brandon Sampson was LSU’s second-leading scorer adding 17 points.

For the Wildcats, freshman Wenyen Gabriel had a career night. Entering the game, Gabriel was averaging 5.7 points per game, but he poured in a career-high 23 points. Wildcats freshman Malik Monk also dropped 23 points.

LSU returns home on Saturday against Arkansas in the PMAC at 7:30 p.m.