NEW ORLEANS — The LSU men’s basketball team built a 15-point first-half lead over the SEC Eastern Division’s No. 2-seeded and No. 9 Florida Gators and held off a furious comeback in the final minutes to advance to the semifinal round of the 2003 SEC Tournament, 65-61, on Friday afternoon in the Superdome.
LSU, which won its seventh-straight game, advanced to face the West’s No. 1-seeded Mississippi State Bulldogs in Saturday’s semifinal round at noon CST. Mississippi State shot 58.9 pecent from the field to beat Ole Miss, 73-64, in the first game of the quarterfinal round on Friday.
The Tigers (21-9), who earned their third semifinal berth in four seasons, shot 55.1 percent from the field (27 of 49), while holding Florida (24-7) to just 21-of-54 shooting for 38.8 percent.
LSU led 40-25 with four second remaining in the first half, and then by 13 at the break. Florida cut the lead to one point, 62-61, on a layup by Anthony Roberson with 2:33 to play, but the Gators missed their last seven shots of the game to be eliminated from the 11-team tournament.
Senior forward Ronald Dupree led LSU with 24 points — including 19 in the first half — on 11-of-15 shooting, while junior forward Jaime Lloreda added a double double with 18 points, a game-high 15 rebounds, four blocked shots and three steals.
Florida was led by forward Matt Bonner who scored 15 points on 4-of-10 from the field including 3-of-4 from three-point range. Bonell Colas added 11 points (all in the first half) and Matt Walsh had 10 on 4-of-8 shooting.
LSU outrebounded the Gators, 36-29.
The Tigers fell behind 11-2 in the first 3:51 of the game, as Matt Bonner and Anthony Roberson hit consecutive three-pointers before Dupree got the Tigers on the board with a jumper. Walsh then scored off an LSU turnover and David Lee converted a three-point play to cap the run.
LSU fought back within one, 11-10, on a pair of baskets by Temple, a tip-in by Lloreda and a layup by Dupree at the 13:31 mark.
After a Florida three-pointer by Brett Nelson, the Gators were held without a field goal until the 6:43 mark of the half, a span of 6:15.
During the Florida drought, LSU took a 23-18 lead. Florida was able to counter with a basket by Colas to stay within three, however, the Tigers then went on a 17-5 run until Colas scored with four seconds left in the half.
Dupree scored 11 points in just more than four minutes late in the half, as LSU led by as many as 15 with 27 seconds to play in the half.
LSU led 40-27 at halftime.
Florida opened the second half just as it did the first: with an 11-2 run, closing the gap to 42-38 at the 17:05 mark.
After the Gators got within three, 44-41, LSU responded by scoring the next five points including a three-pointer by Temple and a layup by Lloreda.
The lead grew to as many as 10, 54-44, on a jumper by Dupree before Florida went on an 8-0 run midway through the half.
Leading 54-52, Lloreda scored the game’s only four points in a five-minute span to expand LSU’s advantage to 58-52 with 6:02 to play.
Dupree matched a Roberson layup with a jumper of his own to keep the lead at six, 62-56, but the Tigers went 4:05 without a point to lead by only one.
With 27 seconds remaining, Dupree made 1-of-2 free throws but LSU point guard Xavier Whipple came down with the offensive rebound to extend the possession. Up 63-61, Whipple was fouled and converted 1-of-2 free throws.
Trailing by three, Roberton missed a six-footer in the lane with only 15 seconds to play, forcing Florida to foul Lloreda.
Lloreda missed the first free throw but made the second after a 30-second LSU timeout to put the Tigers up 65-61.
Florida missed a three-pointer with five seconds to play, and then missed the second-chance layup as time expired.
2003 SEC Tournament
March 13-16, 2003
Louisiana Superdome
New Orleans, La.
First Round
Game 1: (W5) Ole Miss def. (E4) South Carolina, 62-56
Game 2: (W3) LSU vs. (W6) Arkansas, 85-56
Game 3: (E5) Vanderbilt def. (W4) Alabama, 82-69
Game 4: (E3) Tennessee received bye
Quarterfinal Round
Game 5: (W1) Mississippi State def. (W5) Ole Miss, 73-64
Game 6: (W3) LSU def. (E2) Florida, 65-61
Game 7: (E1) Kentucky def. (E5) Vanderbilt, 81-63
Game 8: (W2) Auburn def. (E3) Tennessee, 66-53
Semifinal Round
Game 9: (W1) Mississippi State vs. (W3) LSU, Noon (JP Sports)
Game 10: (E1) Kentucky vs. (W2) Auburn, 2:15 p.m. (JP Sports)
Finals
Game 11: Game 9 winner vs. Game 10 winner, Noon (CBS)