BATON ROUGE — In one of the most improbable upsets in school history, the unfortunate run of luck by the LSU men’s ended on Saturday. But, it wasn’t luck that beat No. 3 Florida. It was guts, heart and talent.
LSU (15-13, 4-10 SEC) got 18 points from Terry Martin and 17 from point guard Garrett Temple to knock off the defending national champions, 66-56.
Florida fell to 25-4 overall and 12-2 in SEC play. The Gators lost for only the second time in their past 20 contests.
The Tigers’ win was a dominating team effort for 40 minutes, as Florida struggled to score from its trademark three-point shooting. The Gators, who averaged more than seven treys per game, were held to 2-of-17 beyond the arc (11.8 percent).
Meanwhile, LSU shot 51.1 percent from the field (23-45) and added 16-of-24 free throws — easily enough offense to defeat the punchless Gators. The Tigers held a 35-22 rebounding advantage and overcame 18 turnovers by stopping Florida’s transition offense.
Al Horford, who scored five points in the first five minutes, led Florida with 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting and nine rebounds. Reserve forward Chris Richard made 6-of-7 shots from close range to add 12 points before fouling out late. Defensive stopper Corey Brewer finished with 11 points. However, Brewer along with teammates Lee Humphrey and Taureen Green combined to make only 2-of-15 three pointers.
LSU came out on fire, making 10 of its first 12 shots including three three-pointers to take a 24-12 lead with 11:03 left in the first half.
Temple sparked the offense by besting his season average (8.4 ppg.) in the first seven mintes of the contest. The long-armed point guard combined slashing moves to the rim with a pair of three pointers to stun the Gators.
Though Gators reserve forward Chris Richard scored six-straight points to cut the margin to 19-12 with 12:41 left in the half, LSU responded by holding Florida without a field goal for more than eight minutes. The 9-1 LSU run pushed its lead to 28-13 with under five minutes left in the half.
A three pointer by Brewer ended the run and a dunk by Noah made it an 11-point game, 30-19. However, Noah couldn’t convert the three-point play after the four-minute media timeout, and LSU answered with four-straight before Brewer’s layup at the buzzer.
LSU led 34-21 at the half.
After Martin hit LSU’s first shot of the half to extend the lead to 15, Florida rolled off seven-straight points to get within eight, 36-28, with 15:41 left.
Martin ended the four-minute LSU drought by hitting a three pointer to get the Tigers back on track offensively.
After a fall-away jumper by Mitchell with 14:09 left, the Tigers held the double-digit lead until the 1:10 mark with solid defense against some of the nation’s best one-on-one scorers — not to mention tough baskets against those same great players on the other end of the court.
A hook shot in the paint by Darnell Lazare increased the LSU lead to 51-35 with only 6:23 to play and forced a Florida timeout.
Two free throws by Temple gave the Tigers its largest lead, 53-35, and began a string of 19 free throw attempts by the teams in less than five minutes. LSU made 6-of-11 in that span, while Florida converted made 5-of-8.
In between, Florida added two field goals and got within 10, 54-44, on a hook shot by Richard with 2:54 left.
With LSU up 13, Florida shooting guard Lee Humphrey — who has made 56 percent of three pointers in league play — made his first three pointer of the game in six attempts to get back within 10 with 1:35 to play.
The free throw show started once again, as 16 more free throws were attempted in the final 1:47. LSU made 9-of-12 to close out the game.
LSU HEAD COACH JOHN BRADY QUOTES
Opening statement…
“I can’t tell you how proud I am of our players. I have never said that our spirit was broke or that we didn’t believe in each other. People assume things and want to make things up. There was never anything wrong with the spirit of our team and how hard we were working. On defense tonight we were as good as any team I have had. We carried out the game plan. The plan was to double team Taurean Green on every ball screen and to double their post players. We wanted to make sure they didn’t have any rhythm on offense. It worked well. They missed some shots tonight because they were never able to get in a rhythm.”
On specific players stepping up tonight…
“We out-rebounded them even though we were overmatched inside. Darnell Lazare, Magnum Rolle, Dameon Mason and Tasmin Mitchell were warriors. What about Garrett Temple? Everybody wants to hold him accountable for a lot of things like they do with me. I should be held accountable, but what Garrett did on Green tonight was as good as it gets. We played a wonderful game. Terry Martin hit some timely baskets. Tasmin Mitchell always battles. Magnum made a couple of mistakes, but overall he played well. I was proud of Dameon Mason. I think our team showed some life at Kentucky and had some opportunities to win that one.”
On the close games his team has had this season…
“Tonight, I was coaching so hard and trying to do everything I could in the last five minutes to make sure we won the game. We got upset with each other a little bit, but we all hugged after it was over. I was so emotional when I was talking to them after tonight’s game that I couldn’t even finish talking. I am so proud of how they held up and fought back. We made enough plays to win it and it was a great game. You look back at this season and there were three or four other games that were lost in the last minute. Two were at the buzzer. Close games are where it is, and we haven’t won enough of them. We will take tomorrow off and practice Monday and Tuesday. We travel to Auburn and hopefully we can get one on the road. After that we come back home for South Carolina.”
On why he said the team played the best he has seen…
“Because of the unfortunate breaks our team has not been able to get and where we are right now. Playing with out Glen (Davis) and still fighting and showing great character. Florida was No. 1 forever and now they are No. 2 or No. 3. By what the critics say, they are playing with four lottery picks and we are playing with none. We held them to 56 points, which I believe is their lowest amount for the season. How we were able to take Taurean Green out of the game. It shows how important a team’s quarterback is. Our people here will get that; when I say quarterback their ears will perk up. We took out their quarterback, which is the point guard in basketball. We beat Texas A&M here and their point guard Acie Law shot 1 for 11 and was held to 3 points. We were able to do the same thing against Florida tonight.”
LSU PLAYER QUOTES
On the game…
“Florida is a very good team. They are a top notch team. We just came out as a team. Everybody played together. Nobody was worried about who got the goal or who took the last shot. There were no “I’s” out there. We just played together as a team.”
On how important it was to get out to a good start…
“It was very good because Florida came back in the second half and made those few runs. It was good that we were able to expand the lead a little bit in the first half. We gave them a little cushion to make their run, and they did but we just stayed poised, played as a team and came out with the victory.”
On what the key was defensively…
“We had to read the post and rotate. We really wanted to shut down the post and shut down Taurean Green, and that is what we did tonight. We shut Taurean Green down with Garrett Temple. He might ease up every now and then and he might make a mistake every now and then on an opponent because he is human, but after all is said and done he shut that guy down. His task was to shut down Taurean Green, and Garrett Temple was the key to that.”
On how his played has changed in the last few games…
“It’s my turn to step up. It is my time to shine. I am getting some more touches and the offense is kind of coming to me a little bit more. This is something that I have been waiting on since my freshman year so I am just playing my role and stepping up and filling in the gaps that I am supposed to be.”
On Garrett Temple…
“He was huge. At the beginning I think he let the game come to him. He drove the ball to the basket very efficiently. He did a great job of running the offense and handling the press. Defensively, you know what you are going to get from him every night, but I think this was a great game for his confidence and in the way he was able to score the ball.”
On Coach Brady after the game…
“He was just excited that we won. The season has been long and we have played a lot of close games and we haven’t been able to close out some games. To be able to come out tonight and get a victory against a top 3 team in the country was huge for us and our confidence and just to get back on the winning side.”
FLORIDA HEAD COACH BILLY DONOVAN
Opening Statement
“I think one of the most interesting things about competition is there is a level of uncertainty that you do not know what the outcome is going to be. That’s why you have come ready to play and be focused because it doesn’t make a difference what has happened in the past. The past is over with, and everyday brings a new challenge and a new opportunity. Through competition, you can find out a lot about yourself.”
On the team’s effort …
“I didn’t think we competed at the level we needed to to win the game. I think we played against a team in LSU that had a lot of fight in them at Kentucky. They had Kentucky down by 16 points, and Kentucky came back to win the game at home. Our guys knew, certainly our coaches knew, that they were going to come out and play very, very well with the loss and absence of Glen Davis. It was amazing that the leading rebounder on their team and the maybe the league leading rebounder in Glen Davis not on the floor, and we are out-rebounded by 13 in the game. Free throw shooting, 54 percent. Obviously, the three-point line, 2-for-17. Couple that with defensively giving up 50 percent.”
On their defensive effort …
“The biggest thing was we were not getting stops. We are not getting stops. Lee Humphrey and Taurean (Green) continue to struggle. We have got to get them back being able to do it. That is the thing that is difficult for our team is that we have had erratic players offensively. We have been able to overcome it with our defense. We’ve had erratic players offensively, and we have not guarded, we have had a very difficult time on the road with Vanderbilt and now here with LSU.”
FLORIDA PLAYER QUOTES
Forward/Center Al Horford
On how LSU played today …
“I think they were able to start off very quick. They got pretty much anything they wanted. They made early shots (in) transition. We didn’t do a good job stopping them early in the game.”
On if his team played without focus today …
“That is something we have to work on, but give LSU credit. They came out with the right focus. They executed their game plan and they beat us. Obviously, we didn’t do a good enough job executing.”
Forward Corey Brewer
On how LSU won today …
“They outplayed us in all aspects of the game. They got all the hustle plays. They got all the loose balls. They did everything right. We just didn’t play hard enough tonight. That’s why we lost.”