BATON ROUGE — The fourth-ranked Florida Gators went on a 24-9 run over the final 9:46 of the first half to take 12-point halftime lead and held off a second-half rally to beat the LSU men’s basketball team, 70-53, on Tuesday night in the Maravich Assembly Center.
The Tigers dropped their fourth straight game in conference play and fell to 12-6 overall and 1-5 in Southeastern Conference action. Florida won its 13th straight game and improved to 6-0 in SEC play and 17-2 overall.
Collis Temple III led the Tigers in scoring with 21 points on 8-of-17 shooting, making him the 31st play in school history to score 1,000 points. Ronald Dupree was the only other Tiger in double figures with 20 points on 10-of-18 shooting.
The Tigers made only 5-of-27 three-pointers for 19 percent.
Florida was led by guard Brett Nelson who scored 25 points on 7-of-11 three-pointers and 4-of-6 free throws. Matt Walsh had 10 points, while Bonell Colas added nine points to pace the Gators’ effort.
Florida finished the game 23 of 53 from the field including 8 of 22 from three-point range. The Gators also outscored the Tigers at the free throw line, 16-4, as LSU missed six of 10 free throws.
Consecutive dunks by Dupree gave the Tigers an early 7-2 advantage before the Gators tied the game at 9-9 on a pair of free throws by Christian Drejer with 10:59 to play in the first half.
After a three-pointer by Hudson with 10:16 to play put LSU up for one possession, Florida scored the next 15 points to lead 24-12 at the 5:41 mark. During the run, Brett Nelson hit a pair of three-point baskets, while LSU missed three front ends of one-and-one free throw attempts.
LSU began the game 5-of-18 shooting, while Florida made 9-of-20 shots in the first 14-plus minutes.
Temple ended the drought with a three-pointer from the top of the key with 5:24 left in the half to cut the lead to 24-13. After a basket by Walsh, Dupree and Hudson scored to keep the Tigers within seven, 26-19.
However, Florida scored the next seven points on a free throw and a pair of treys by Roberson and Nelson to lead 33-19 with less than a minute to play in the half. The Gators led 33-21 at the break.
The Tigers made only 9-of-29 first-half shots (31.0 percent) including three missed layups and several from beyond the three-point arc, where they were 3-of-11.
Florida, on the other half, recovered from a 3-of-9 start to finish the half 12 of 26 from the field and outrebounded the Tigers, 24-15.
In the second half, LSU was able to trim the Gators’ lead to five, 41-36, on eight straight points by Temple including a pair of three-pointers with 12:55 to play.
LSU head coach John Brady sat he and Bright to rest each and the Florida lead climbed back to 11, 49-38, on Nelson’s fifth three-pointer of the contest.
Again, LSU was able to whittle the game to a seven-point affair on a tip-in by Brad Bridgewater and a layup by Dupree, but back-to-back treys by Nelson and a layup on a steal by Justin Hamilton pushed the advantage to 15, 59-44, with just more than three-minutes to play.
The Tigers return to action on Feb. 1 at 4 p.m. when they travel to Alabama to face the Crimson Tide.