With a chance to reach the 500th win plateau in his coaching career, Billy Donovan will have to wait a little longer.
Florida had no answer for LSU forward Jarrell Martin, who scored a career-high 28 points and added 13 rebounds as the Gators fell in Baton Rouge 70-63 on Saturday. The Gators drop to 13-14 (6-8 SEC) on the season, and LSU improves to 19-8 and (8-6).
After surrendering the game’s first 12 points to the Tigers, the Gators used a 13-0 run to get themselves back into the contest just before the half but still trailed 33-26 at the half.
LSU then used a 9-2 run to start the second half to extend its lead to 41-28 with 17 minutes remaining. The Tigers were never truly threatened again.
“We don’t have a great scoring team – everybody knows that,” said Florida head coach Billy Donovan. “But the thing that is disturbing is in areas that we’ve trying to get better at that, we are unable to get better at – it’s the same mistakes over and over.”
Florida played without their top two scoring options in Michael Frazier II and Dorian Finney-Smith for the second straight game and the Gators struggled shooting the rock.
The Gators shot 35.3% (24-for-68) from the field. Eli Carter led Florida with 14 points (4-14 from the floor) while freshmen Devin Robinson added 12.
“What happens is when you have a shooting team and a scoring team like we’ve had coupled with the fact that we lack in those areas, it becomes very difficult to beat a team like LSU,” said Donovan.
The Tigers struggled offensive as well, only shooting 40% from the field (22-foor-55) but they were able to neutralize their shooting woes with trips to the free throw line.
LSU went 21-for-27 at the charity stripe (77.8%) while Martin shot a career-high 16 free throws.
“LSU didn’t shoot a great percentage. We fouled them too much and put them at the free throw line,” Donovan said. “But there were areas in the game we needed to compete and fight in. We didn’t take the ball strong enough up at the basket to get ourselves to the free throw line… Our offense got good shots (but) we didn’t get the ball in the basket.”
To listen to audio from the story, click below:
Billy Donovan says he’s disappointed to see his team consistently make the same mistakes
Donovan says it’s very difficult to beat a team like LSU without executing in the little things
Donovan says they struggled generating points