LSU Moves On in SEC Tournament 2009, Kentucky NIT Bound?

The Kentucky Wildcats came out with a lot of intensity in the first half, but turnovers seemed to plague the Cats again as they finished the half with 9 turnovers.  The only thing keeping the Wildcats in the game was the fact that the LSU Tigers couldn’t make their shots.  Louisiana St finished the half on 30.6% field goal shooting.  Michael Porter hit two 3-pointers in the half, but Jodie Meeks was pretty much non-existent as he only had 4 points on 2 of 5 shooting.  Patrick Patterson kept going where he left off yesterday, finishing the half with 7 points and 8 rebounds.  The score at halftime was 28-23 in favor of the LSU Tigers.

In the second half, it was close until the middle of the second half when the Kentucky Wildcats’ defense just broke down as LSU players were getting open left and right.  I don’t know what happened at half-time, but it didn’t work or maybe LSU is just that much better than Kentucky and maybe it is time to come to that realization.

Where was Jodie Meeks?  There was a very questionable move by Coach Gillespie in the second half where Jodie Meeks was sitting on the bench for about 4-5 minutes of the second half when he needed to be in the basketball game.  I know that he was struggling from the field, but you need your best player in the game when you are down!  It was the first game of the season that Jodie Meeks didn’t get double figures in points as he finished with only 8 points.

Kentucky Performers:
Patrick Patterson - 15 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 blocks
Ramon Harris - 11 points and 4 rebounds
Michael Porter - 9 points and 2 rebounds
Jodie Meeks - 8 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 5 turnovers
Darius Miller - 8 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals
Perry Stevenson - 5 points, 2 blocks, and 4 turnovers

Great balanced scoring, just not enough of it!!

Kentucky just couldn’t get over the hump and was behind the entire game after scoring the first two points of the game.  The final score was 67-58 in favor of LSU.  As of now, it looks as though we are going to be “NIT” bound.  Hopefully, we will have better luck next year!

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