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Florida visits LSU in matchup of Final Four teams

Feb 24, 2007 - 4:13 PM No. 3 Florida (24-3) at LSU (14-13) 3:45 pm EST

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (Ticker) -- In a matchup of Final Four teams from last season, only Florida seems poised to return to college basketball's biggest stage.

After clinching the Southeastern Conference regular-season title on Wednesday, the third-ranked Gators hope to keep rolling when they visit Louisiana State on Saturday.

Florida (24-3, 11-1 SEC East) had a 17-game winning streak snapped last Saturday at Vanderbilt, a loss that cost the Gators the No. 1 spot in the polls.

However, the Gators bounced back nicely with a 63-49 victory over South Carolina four days later.

Al Horford scored 12 of his 20 points in the second half to help quell repeated rallies by the Gamecocks.

The defending national champions clinched just their second outright SEC title - and first since 1989 - with Wednesday's win. They shared the championship with Kentucky in 2000 and 2001.

While the Gators look like a favorite to return to the Final Four, the Tigers (14-13, 3-10 West) may not make the NCAA tournament unless they put together a huge run in the SEC tournament.

Playing without star Glen Davis in its last contest, LSU suffered a 70-63 loss to Kentucky on Wednesday. Tasmin Mitchell scored 19 points.