BATON ROUGE — Javonte Smart was confident.

With 0.06 seconds left in overtime and the game tied, the LSU freshman point guard was headed to the free throw line inside a sold-out Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Saturday. The former Scotlandville Magnet High star, who got the surprise start in place of leading scorer Tremont Waters, who was sidelined with sickness, wasn’t nervous at all.

“Yesterday at practice we shot free throws,” Smart said afterwards. “I did not miss a free throw in practice. So, I just said ‘practice makes perfect’ and I went up to the free-throw line with a lot of confidence.”

Smart drained both free throws to cap a career game. The freshman scored a game and career-high 29 points as No. 13 LSU took down No. 5 Tennessee, 82-80, in overtime. It is LSU’s second win over a Top 5 opponent in the past 11 days, with the other being a 73-71 win at Kentucky on Feb. 12.

Those three teams are tied for the top spot in the SEC standings with four games left in the regular season, and LSU holds the tiebreaker now over both Tennessee and Kentucky.

“That’s how he is,” LSU head coach Will Wade said of Smart. “He’s so tough. I just love him. He’s everything we’re about as a program. He’s from Louisiana. He loves LSU and he loves it. There’s no doubt he was making those two free throws.”

Things didn’t start out so great for the Tigers.

LSU freshman sensation, and second-leading scorer, Naz Reid got called for a technical foul after pushing down Tennessee’s Grant Williams only 48 seconds into the game. The call was reviewed, and upheld, which caused Wade to nearly receive a technical himself.

LSU (22-5, 12-2 SEC) kept fighting on even after Reid picked up his second foul and sat the final 16 minutes of the half, scoring zero points and grabbing zero rebounds. For the game Reid, went scoreless in regulation, scored one total point and had seven rebounds.

Darius Days, though, came off the bench and brought the sell-out crowd to its feet with a 3-pointer and drew the foul. After Days drained the free throw, LSU trailed 10-8. The Tigers bench scored 17 points in the victory.

“The coaches trust us to do our job to the best of our ability,” Days said.

A few minutes later, Skylar Mays made a contended 3-pointer that tied the game at 18 all with 11:52 to go. The two teams would go back-and-forth for most of the first half but LSU led 31-30 after a Smart jumper with 3:27 left in the half.

Despite that effort, LSU found itself trailing, 36-31, at the break as Tennessee (24-3, 12-2 SEC) closed out the first half on a 6-0 run. 

After cutting the lead to five a few times in the second half, Mays made it a 49-46 game with a layup at the 11:45 mark. An Emmitt Williams putback slam and a pair of free throws by Mays a few minutes later kept it a 2-point game but LSU struggled to stop Admiral Schofield.

Tennessee’s Williams may be one of the favorites to be named SEC Player of the Year but it was Schofield who dominated. Schofield recorded his 15th career 20-point game, leading the Volunteers with 27 points. 

With under five minutes to go, Smart and Mays began to take over the game.

Smart cut the lead to 64-60 with 4:35 remaining with a 3-pointer in front of the LSU bench that electrified the home crowd. Then Smart stole the ball and scored to make it 64-62 with 3:58 to go.

Tennessee tried to take back control but Mays drained a 3-pointer to tie the game at 69 with 1:15 left. Mays then drove to the basket, drew a foul from Schofield and drained both free throws to give LSU a 71-69 lead with 45.0 seconds left.

“Everybody contributed,” said Mays, who scored 23 points in the win. “Obviously, we are a better team when Tremont (Waters) is on the floor, but with him not playing, everybody had to step up.”

Tennessee’s Williams answered by going right to the basket and dropping in a bucket to tie the game. That would be the final points of regulation as LSU would be playing in its program-record sixth overtime game this season.

Williams gave the Vols the lead after a made layup, while being fouled, and then drained the free throw to make it an 80-78 lead with 18 seconds left.

LSU came down the court and Kavell Bigby-Williams managed to put back a missed jumper by Reid to tie the game. Bigby-Williams ended the night with a double-double, scoring 10 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.

Tennessee tried to come down the court to tie the game but Lamont Turner’s 3-point shot missed and Smart rebounded the ball and was then fouled by Williams.

That’s when Smart stepped to the line.

“I thought Javonte (Smart) was phenomenal,” Wade said. “I told somebody before the game that it probably wasn’t going to be as aesthetically pleasing, he’s going to get the job done. That’s what he does. It won’t look as crisp, but he’s going to get the job done and he’s done that for us all season long.”

“I just had a lot of fun,” Smart said. “I just wanted to get that win under our belt and push forward.”