Florida Gators
LSU
No. 4 Gators Run Away At LSU, 70-53
Wednesday, January 29, 2003 | Men's Basketball
Senior guard Brett Nelson (St. Albans, W.Va.) came up with a season-high 25 points, hitting seven three-pointers, as the No. 4 Florida men's basketball team took care of LSU 70-53, at the Pete Maravich Center Tuesday night in Baton Rouge, La.
The Gators improved on the best start in school history, moving to 17-2 overall and a school record 6-0 in the Southeastern Conference. UF won its 13th straight game and is one victory shy of tying the school-record for consecutive wins, which was set last season. LSU fell to 12-6 overall and 1-5 in the conference.
Sophomore David Lee (St. Louis, Mo.) had 11 rebounds for Florida, Matt Walsh (Holland, Pa.) had 10 points to help a balanced Florida attack. Nelson, who has been recovering from a stress fracture in his right foot for most of the season, went 7-of-11 from three-point range.
LSU cut the Gators' lead to five at 41-36 with 13 minutes left, but Nelson responded by knocking down four threes in the next four minutes to push Florida's lead back out to double-digits. The Tigers never got closer than nine points in the last 11 minutes of the game.
LSU jumped out to an early 9-4 lead in the first three minutes of the game. The Tigers led 12-9 at the 10:18 mark of the first half, but watched as UF went on a 15-0 run to take a 24-12 lead with 5:59 left until halftime. LSU's next points came at the 5:49 mark with a Collis Temple III three-pointer to make the score 24-15. Overall, the Gators outscored the Tigers 24-9 in the last 10 minutes to take a 33-21 lead at halftime. Nelson shot 60-percent from behind the arc in the half, while scoring nine points.
LSU shot well below its nearly 50-percent average, hitting only 33-percent from the field. LSU was only 5-of-27 from three-point range, well below its 35.7 percent average. Florida hit 43-percent of its field goals and was 8-of-22 from three-point range.
Florida will be back in action Saturday, Feb. 1 at 1 p.m., when the Gators host Arkansas at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center.
