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Balanced attack leads No. 14 Florida over LSU

Feb 21, 2011 - 12:25 AM Baton Rouge, LA (Sports Network) - Erving Walker and Kenny Boynton both finished with 17 points, as 14th-ranked Florida held on to defeat LSU 68-61 in SEC action.

Vernon Macklin turned in a solid effort with 16 points and seven rebounds for Florida (21-5, 10-2 SEC), which defeated Tennessee 61-60 on February 12th and has won five straight and eight of nine overall. Alex Tyus chipped in with six points and nine boards for the victors.

"I just felt like it was going to be important to go inside and try to establish Vernon Macklin, and I think we got him some touches and they elected not to double him and they played him heads-up in the post," Florida head coach Billy Donovan said.

Ralston Turner led all scorers with 18 points for LSU (10-17, 2-10), which has dropped 10 in a row. Andre Stringer had nine points in defeat.

Florida controlled the opening half as Boynton's jumper capped a 10-0 run to put the Gators in front 19-8 nearly eight minutes into the game.

Aaron Dotson's three-pointer cut the LSU deficit to five, 21-16 a short time later, but layups by Boynton and Walker stretched the visitors' lead to 32-19 with 5:47 left before the half.

Macklin's short jumper with six seconds remaining gave the Gators a healthy 40-25 advantage heading into the locker room.

"Well, Florida is pretty good. I thought the first half, 40-25, was much more about what they were doing than about what we couldn't do," LSU head coach Trent Johnson said. "They score in the post. They score in the perimeter. We went into the game trying to take Macklin's left shoulder away and Tyus's left shoulder and post move away."

Walker hit a triple to counter an LSU 9-2 run early in the second half that put Florida ahead 45-34 and the Gators would hold a double-digit edge until Storm Warren's make drew the Tigers to within nine at 55-46 with 9:17 to play.

LSU would get as close as six, 58-52, with 4:41 to play after Ralston hit a jumper, but the Gators wouldn't let the game get away down the stretch.

Game Notes

Despite the loss, LSU is still 60-39 in the all-time series against Florida...The Gators made 45.5 percent of their shots, while the Tigers made 42.4 percent from the floor.