Men’s Basketball Goes 1-1 at Greenbrier Tip-Off

A tough loss to Pitt paired with an insane triple OT win over UCF

They probably won’t hang a banner for finishing third place in the Mountain Division of the Greenbrier Tip-Off, but LSU had a pretty nice showing in West Virginia this weekend.

Unfortunately, LSU (5-1) suffered its first defeat of the season when they lost to Pitt 74-63 Friday, but the Tigers showed some resilience by overcoming a 20-point deficit and rallied back to beat UCF in Sunday’s consolation game. LSU beat the Knights 109-102 in a marathon triple overtime game.

As mentioned above, UCF led by as many as 20 points in the first half but LSU was able to chip away at that lead by scoring seven unanswered to make it a more manageable 13-point deficit. UCF hit a layup with about three seconds to play to go into the half leading by 15.

Things looked grim for LSU in the second half when UCF pushed its lead back up to 18 points with 12:57 to play, but Matt McMahon’s squad kept battling.

Jalen Reed and Vyctorius Miller were able to cut the 18-point deficit down to eight, but UCF answered with six straight points to make it a 62-48 game with eight and a half minutes to play. Jordan Sears picked an excellent time to find his three-point shot, and he hit three in about 80 seconds of game clock to get LSU within five points.

Cam Carter scored LSU’s final four points of regulation to send the game into overtime, including hitting on a pair of free throws with 22 seconds remaining.

To be perfectly candid, both LSU and UCF squandered multiple chances to end things in both the first and second overtime sessions, but give credit to both sides that neither team would blink until overtime number three.

The second OT was a lot of fun with the Knights and Tigers trading threes. Sears and Cam Carter each had a three to match the pair of threes hit by UCF’s Jordan Ivy-Curry. Budding freshman sensation Vyctorius Miller had an awesome dunk in the third OT when the lane opened up, and he hit a layup to give LSU a 104-99 lead with 28 seconds remaining.

Reed had by far and away his best game of the season with 21 points, 13 rebounds, and four assists; Sears’ hot hand from deep gave him a team-best 25 points, while Cam Carter had 20 and Dji Bailey had 14. Miller provided scoring off the bench with 16 points, and Corey Chest continues to be a much-needed presence in the interior with eight points, six rebounds, three steals and a block in 21 minutes.

LSU now has two wins over Big 12 teams, and while UCF is predicted to be toward the bottom of the Big 12, the Knights did beat a top-25 Texas A&M team in Orlando to open the 2024-2025 season, and, again, they led by 20. LSU earned this win, and its efforts like these that show maybe McMahon’s got himself an NCAA tournament team.

LSU will have a nice long break to get their legs back and won’t play again until Friday night when they’re at home against Northwestern State.