LSU Comes Up Short In Final Minutes Against Florida in First SEC Loss of Season

Florida dominates the paint en route to 83-79 win over Tigers

A late run put a good scare in the Florida Gators but LSU came up short in its first road SEC outing of the season, falling in Gainesville 83-79. 

For LSU, this game came down to turnovers and stopping Florida from converting in the paint. After a nine turnover first-half, LSU was able to correct those issues on offense but the lack of a true big reared its ugly head on the purple and gold. 

Already down Bryan Penn-Johnson and Shareef O'Neal, the Tigers had to have Trendon Watford and Darius Days on the court at all times. With Days struggling with foul trouble, for much of the second half that burden fell on Watford and Mwani Wilkinson. 

Florida poured in 18 points in the paint in the first half alone to match the Tigers' offensive effort from Smart, Watford and Thomas. However in the final 20 minutes, all attention went into slowing down Gator center Colin Castleton. The Michigan transfer played just two minutes after picking up two early fouls but came out in the second half on a mission. 

Castleton dropped 17 points, in the first eight minutes to help Florida seize control of the game, at one point taking the only double-digit lead of the game. As Castleton and Florida continued to pound the paint, the Tigers' defensive rebounding suffered. 

Florida was able to grab 10 second half offensive rebounds to turn into 12 second chance points. The Gators were also able to control the paint throughout the game, scoring 34 points under the basket which helped them shoot 50% from the field for the game. 

On the flip side, LSU just wasn't able to find much consistency on offense in the second half as it trailed by 8-10 points for much of the period. 

Coach Will Wade said after the game that the final two minutes of the first half and the first five minutes of the second half is ultimately what did the Tigers in. At one point LSU carried a five point lead in the opening 20 minutes but Florida went on a 16-5 run to seize control of the game. 

"We tried a bunch of different defenses but we just ran out of bodies," Wade said. "We missed a lot of stuff at the rim and that's a credit to their length and athleticism and it was just tough sledding for us to finish."

A late 9-2 spurt in the final 2:30 minute cut the Florida lead down to 80-77 with 30 seconds to play. 

On offense, Javonte Smart, Trendon Watford and Cam Thomas led the way with a combined 69 points . Smart and Thomas knocked down 25 of the 40 LSU points while Watford led the way in the second half with 14 of his 21 points coming in the second half. Thomas scored a game high 28 points and the freshman has now scored 60 points in two conference games. 

The matchup to watch heading into Saturday afternoon was how Thomas would match up with Florida's best defender, Scottie Lewis, guarding him throughout the afternoon. 

"We played way better in the second half as far as turnovers but they were getting offensive rebounds and hitting wide open threes," Thomas said. "Can't really do much when a team's doing that offensively so we've gotta regroup."

Up next, the Tigers return to the PMAC for a Wednesday showdown with the Georgia Bulldogs to get back in the win column and above .500 in conference play.