Florida Gators Basketball Defeats LSU Tigers

The Florida Gators (10-5, 2-1 SEC) came ready to show the SEC what they were made of as they went up against the LSU Tigers (9-6, 2-1 SEC) on Saturday afternoon in Gainesville at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center.

Starting off with a 5-0 run by Dorian Finney-Smith, the Gators came ready to show the SEC that they were not ones to be counted out. They refused to let being the underdogs depict their game-play and held onto the lead for the entire first half.

Ben Simmons showed he’s as good as advertised though, carrying the Tigers into a close game and scoring 12 of their 31 first half points. He also contributed 9 rebounds and 3 assists in the first half alone and finished with 28 points and 17 rebounds.

The crowd for this game had a ridiculous amount of energy and intensity that was echoed by the Gators in their game play and it was a vicious cycle for the visitors as Florida scored dunk after dunk, each one pumping up the crowd even more.

A rare dunk from point guard Kasey Hill had the crowd on their feet as he extended the Gator lead to 10 points with 9:41 left in the half. If you missed the game, no worries you can check out his hops here.

Another standout play was Chris Chiozza’s alley-oop to Devin Robinson that picked up the Gator’s momentum as Egbunu followed up with a dunk of his own. However, the dunk fest still was not over. Robinson came back with a put back slammer that left Florida with a 9-point lead at 33-24 with 3:44 to play before hitting the locker rooms for halftime.

The half ended with the Gators still in the drivers seat, but the Tigers cut down their lead to just three points at 34-31.

Coming back from the half, the Tigers came back with their claws out looking to take down the Gators at home and keep their undefeated SEC record in tact. They had the first basket of the half with a jumper by Hornsby that clipped Florida’s lead to just one point.

They kept the game close, but just could not come out with win on the road with fans as rowdy and as loud as they were on Saturday afternoon.

It wasn’t until a few minutes in the second half that the Gators got their first three-ball with a basket from Dorian Finney-Smith. Both teams struggled from behind the arc with LSU at 16% and Florida shooting 17%.

One person who did do well from downtown was Justin Leon as the Florida Gators basketball team seemed to unearth a new star in the forward. He chipped in 14 points and nine rebounds, scoring eight in the second half and going 3-4/2-2 after the break as well.

The Gators gave a final push to pull away from the Tigers at the free throw line, finishing 17-30 at the charity stripe overall and 11-14 in the second half alone; and ended up with the at-home SEC win in front of a packed house at 68-62.

Florida’s next game is on Tuesday, January 12 against Texas A&M (12-2, 2-0 SEC) in College Station, Texas at 7:00 p.m. You can watch along on SEC Network or on ESPN 3.

Jenna Ladd
Growing up, Jenna took more of an interest in cheerleading then what was going on the football field and basketball court. It wasn't until she attended her first Gator football game that she finally took notice of football. It was love at first down. (She also enjoys lame jokes). From there, Jenna decided to immerse herself in all things sports - never missing a home football game for all four years of college. During her junior year, she stumbled into the amazing opportunity to marry her love of writing with her love of sports and somehow was able to land an internship with GatorCountry. When she is not covering games, Jenna likes to box, binge-watch Family Guy and American Dad on Netflix and keep up with her fantasy football teams. She loves Jesus, all things sugary and funny snapchat filters, but her main goal in life right now is to find a job after graduating with a degree in sport management.