LSU Basketball Heads to Gainesville to Face Florida Tuesday

BATON ROUGE – The LSU Basketball team begins the first of two games this week on the road on Tuesday night when it travels to Gainesville to take on the University of Florida.

The game is set for Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center at just after 6 p.m. CT on the SEC Network (Roy Philpott, Jon Crispin) and on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network (Guaranty Media flagship Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) with the Voice of the Tigers, Chris Blair, and former LSU head coach John Brady.

The Tigers are 13-5 and 1-4 in the Southeastern Conference, while nationally-ranked Florida is also 13-5, but tied for first in the league at 4-1 with Texas A&M after consecutive wins over Georgia, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Vanderbilt.

Florida defeated Vandy, 98-94, in Nashville on Saturday. Reuben Chinyelu had 20 points and 10 rebounds, while Xaivian Lee also scored 20 points to lead the Gators. Thomas Haugh added 18 points, Alex Condon 16 and Isaiah Brown 14 in the win for Coach Todd Golden, in his fourth year as head coach in Florida.

Haugh is the leading scorer for the season, averaging 17.4 points a game. Condon comes in at 14.4 and Chinyelu is averaging a double double with 11.8 points and 10.7 rebounds.

The Gators shot 52.5 percent for the game (32-of-61) with nine made three-pointers and 25-of-30 at the free throw line. Florida outrebounded Vandy, 40-26, with 22 second chance points.

LSU led for 39:32 against Missouri on Saturday at the Maravich Center, scoring the first 10 points of the game and finishing the deal with free throw makes in the final minute for its first conference win in the 78-70 decision.

The Tigers had its lowest SEC turnover rate with just seven and out rebounded Missouri, 35-30, and 16-9 on the offensive boards. That helped LSU to a 21-13 advantage in second chance points.

LSU also had its third game of the season with double digit three-pointers with 10 makes.

Marquel Sutton had his best scoring game at LSU with 26 points, his third 20-plus game of the season, while Max Mackinnon continued his strong SEC play, scoring 20 points. Mackinnon is leading the team in scoring in SEC play at just shy of 20 points a game.

The status of point guard DJ Thomas Jr., will be updated officially at 7:10 p.m. Monday night on the SEC Availability Report. He remains “day-to-day” as he tries to return from the left lower leg injury suffered just before the Tigers opened SEC play on Jan. 3.

The Tigers will also play on Saturday at Bud Walton Arena against Arkansas at 7:30 p.m. Also this week, because of the Tuesday road game, the Matt McMahon radio show will be on Wednesday at TJ Ribs on Acadian Thruway and broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network.