Kentucky will take on the winner of Vanderbilt and LSU

The SEC Tournament second round has been set, with No. 3 seed Kentucky now one step closer to finding out its matchup in the quarterfinals.

In a head-to-head battle between the No. 11 Georgia Bulldogs and No. 14 LSU Tigers in the late game inside Bridgestone Arena, it was the latter who pulled off the win to advance — but it didn’t come easy. A 2.5-point favorite entering the matchup, the higher-seeded LSU found itself up double digits for the majority of the game before having to squeak out the 72-67 win down the stretch, albeit shooting just 36.4% from the field, 20% from three and 76.9% at the line. The Bulldogs shot better in all three categories at 40% overall, 35.3% from deep and 87.5% at the charity stripe, but still came away with the loss.

KJ Williams led the winning team with 18 points (5-14 FG, 8-8 FT) to go with eight rebounds, four assists and three steals. Trae Hannibal added 14 points and 11 rebounds while Shawn Phillips finished with 13 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks.

As for the losing team, two players finished with 13 points apiece — Braelen Bridges and Justin Hill — while Terry Roberts added 12 and Kario Oquendo and Jabri Abdur-Rahim each contributed 10, respectively.

The Tigers will take on No. 6 seed Vanderbilt on Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on SEC Network. That winner will take on the Wildcats on Friday, also at 9 p.m. ET on SEC Network.

An updated look at the SEC Tournament schedule, all times listed in EST:

Thursday, March 9