BATON ROUGE - The 21st ranked LSU basketball team bounces back against Kentucky, winning the SEC home opener 65-60. The Tigers went on a 20-2 run with 2:30 left to take control of the game.

It was a better shooting performance for the Tigers, as LSU shot 42 percent from the field and hit nine threes on 23 shots. LSU was led again by 6th man Tari Eason who had a team-high 13 points and 6 boards.

LSU dominated the second-chance points, outscoring Kentucky 16-6. Ten of those points came in the second half.

“It was a good win. I wish we would have closed it out a little bit better. I did not think we had a great start to the second half, to state the obvious. But I thought our guys played really hard. We were able to overcome some of our deficiencies because we played so hard," head coach Will Wade said. "We did a nice job on the backboards. We battled really hard on the glass. You have to protect your home court in SEC play, and we were able to do that."

"It was a wild finish. Obviously, it wasn’t exactly the way we drew it up, but you know at the end of the day a win is a win. That’s what we wanted and that’s what we came out with. We'll go back and watch film and there are things we need to fix, little things that we can correct obviously, because those moments are pretty important, but a win is a win. It was a real important bounce-back game, especially after the last one (Auburn),” guard Brandon Murray said.

It was also a big night for former Tiger coach Dale Brown, who was honored before the game on Dale Brown Court. Brown was the national coach of the year in 1981, and his 448 victories trail only Adolph Rupp (875) and Billy Donavan (467) in wins at an SEC school.

The Tigers will be back at home on Saturday against 18th ranked Tennessee at 5 pm on ESPN2.