Florida rallies to hand LSU its 16th SEC loss to close the regular season
Florida blitzed LSU with a 25-12 run in the game’s final 6½ minutes to close out a 79-67 home victory in the final SEC regular season game for both teams Saturday afternoon in Gainesville.
Florida’s Riley Kugel scored 10 of his game-high 21 points in the Gators’ (16-15, 9-9 SEC) final burst that assured LSU (13-18 overall, 2-16 SEC) of tying for its second worst league record in school history.
The Tigers, picked by SEC coaches in the preseason to finish seventh in the league, ended in 14th and last place. They will play 11th seeded Georgia in the SEC tournament on Wednesday night.
KJ Williams led LSU with 19 points. Derek Fountain added 13 and Adam Miller had 10.
Florida led 33-29 at halftime, but the Gators outshot the Tigers 53.3 percent to 36.7 percent from the field in the second half. Florida was 7 of 14 in 3-pointers in the final half while LSU was just 1 of 5.
The absence of Colin Castleton, Florida’s 6-11 senior forward who sustained a season-ending broken hand vs. Ole Miss on Feb. 15, seemed at first to be a huge plus for the Tigers.
An offensive force and a supreme defensive rim protector, he had 18 points, 7 rebounds and 5 blocked shots in the Gators’ 67-56 victory at LSU on Jan. 10.
With Castleton protecting the rim, LSU missed 11 of 20 layups, often settled for 3-pointers and missed 23 of 28 3’s.
This time around with no Castleton, the Tigers were able to get to the basket, either cashing in layups or drawing fouls..
LSU led by as many as six points at 24-18 with 5:04 left in the first quarter. But Florida, hurting the Tigers with offensive rebounding, went on 7-1 run to tie the game at 25-25 heading into the final 2:35 of the opening half.
The teams were tied 29-29 with 1:10 remaining when a Williams layup and two Cam Hayes free throws provided LSU with a four-point halftime edge.
In the opening 4½ minutes of the second half when LSU extended its lead to 12 points, the Tigers doubled down on getting the ball inside to Williams. He responded with three consecutive buckets including two layups and a dunk for a 44-32 advantage.
LSU began in full spiral mode when Williams went to the bench with 9:59 left to play with his fourth foul.
It took Florida 8:16 to track down and pass the Tigers on a Kowacie Reeves steal and dunk to start a 10-2 run that led to a 64-56 Gators’ lead with 4:32 left.
LSU stayed on attack mode, taking everything offensively towards the basket. But while Hayes hit a pair of layups, Kugel countered with a pair of 3’s as the Gators headed into the final three minutes with a 69-60 lead.